Last rallies in Germany before Sunday’s general election

Germany’s general election is much closer now. The latest polls are putting the two main parties to fight neck to neck. Polls suggest that an unusually tight race is taking up between the outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right CDU and Social Democrats.

Politicians are trying to replace her. They are about to make their final appearance to voters on their last day of campaigning. Mrs. Merkel has dominated the politics of Germany for 16 years with her post.

She is about to appear at a rally along with the candidate, Armin Laschet, from her party, who will replace her. Mrs. Merkel had taken the vow to avoid the general election campaign. But her party has lost a comfortable lead in the polls. It is now trailing behind the Social Democrats.

The Green Party is now on its course to come third. But it can still feature in government. Analysts are saying that there is a wide range of coalitions that can take place. It will be quite politically tricky to negotiate.

The success of SPD is getting credited to its candidate Olaf Scholz. He has excluded the calm understanding for which Angela Merkel gets admired.

However, there are a range of issues at the forefront in the mind of voters. These include climate change also. On Friday, at least ten thousand activists marched in the country to demand some actions to tackle global warming. Climate change has performed as the central theme in the election campaign.

Greta Thunberg, the Swedish climate activist, also told the crowds in Berlin that no political parties are taking enough action on it.

Global allies are closely watching the vote in the biggest economy of Europe, which is standing at the heart of the European Union. Germans are now all set to elect their members of the lower house of federal parliament, the Bundestag. It has 598 seats. More than 60.4 million Germans are eligible to vote.

Although the winning party has become quite clear on the night, only the real winner will be the one after the election.

Credits: BBC