BERLIN — German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Saturday
gave her would-be successor Armin Laschet a ringing endorsement, in a bid to
shore up his ailing election campaign which has triggered fears their party
could crash out of government.
اضافة اعلان
Merkel's conservative CDU-CSU alliance has led Germany in
four coalitions since 2005 when she took office, but the country's future new
government has been thrown open as her departure from the political stage
nears.
The 67-year-old veteran will step down after September 26
elections and has so far refrained from commenting about who she preferred to
take over from her.
But at a key election campaign rally on Saturday, she voiced
strong backing for Laschet.
"It has always been important to him to place the
individual and their inviolable dignity at the center of everything. ... I am
deeply convinced that it is precisely with this attitude that (he) will serve
the people of Germany as chancellor," she said at the rally.
While Merkel's popularity ratings have held steady in the
twilight of her reign, Laschet has struggled to find favor with voters.
The latest polls show their conservative bloc now hanging on
to a narrow lead of two percentage points against junior coalition partners the
Social Democrats, who have in recent weeks made big strides to overtake
erstwhile runners-up the Greens.
A survey published Friday showed just as many Germans want
the Social Democrats (SPD) to lead the next government as the conservatives —
an alarmingly big drop of five percentage points in backing for the CDU-CSU
from early August.
The SPD's chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz was also more
popular with voters — some 41 percent of Germans prefer the centre-left
politician as next chancellor as compared to just 16 percent plumping for
Laschet.
'Quick and painful'
While frustration against the government over the
coronavirus pandemic had initially weighed on the conservatives' popularity
earlier in the year, the mood had brightened as more Germans were vaccinated
and curbs were eased.
An initial boost in support for the Greens had also melted
away as its leader was embroiled in a plagiarism scandal and other gaffes,
giving the conservatives a strong lead in polls entering the summer.
But the mood dramatically turned in July when Laschet was
seen chuckling in the background with local officials while Germany's president
gave a speech mourning victims of deadly
floods.
Since the disaster, the conservatives have been unable to
halt a falling trend in popularity.
The Taliban's lightning takeover of Afghanistan also puts
more pressure on Merkel's government, which is under fire for failing to
anticipate the crisis sooner.
At Saturday's rally, Laschet acknowledged that the campaign
was "going differently that the various strategies" drawn up by his
party. But he blamed the pandemic and then the floods for derailing the plans,
and did not address his failing popularity.
Criticism from several backbenchers had spilled out into the
open on Friday, with the Bild daily even quoting MPs apparently urging Laschet
to step aside for the sake of the party.
"A quick and painful reaction is better than to go down
together," CDU lawmaker Sylvia Pantel was quoted as saying by Bild.
The jitters in the conservative camp also risk reviving
strife that had dogged the alliance of CDU and its sister party CSU even before
the start of their election campaign.
'Great danger'
Laschet only secured the conservatives' chancellor candidate
nomination in April after a bruising battle with the leader of Bavaria's CSU,
Markus Soeder.
Despite conceding after the loss, a whiff of discontent has
lingered in the air from Soeder's camp as the Bavarian has been consistently
ahead in popularity polls against Laschet.
Soeder put up a united front with Laschet at the rally,
telling him "Armin, you can rely on my support — this I mean in all
honesty."
But Soeder, who is also Bavaria's state premier, also
underlined that it was the conservatives' toughest campaign since 1998, when
the alliance was voted out of government.
"The trend is clear at the moment — it's not heading
steeply upwards," he said, adding that "all's not lost yet."
"There's no reason to complain, rather, it is time to
really put up a fight. I have no desire to go into opposition."
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