The highly anticipated German elections are held on Sunday. An electoral round destined, regardless of the outcome, to make history because it closes an era in Germany, that of Angela Merkel who has continuously led the country for 16 years.
According to polls, the distances between the two main parties are narrowing, and the Social Democrats - who have been ahead for weeks - have to fight to the last vote if they want to fulfill the dream of bringing one of their leaders back to the head of the government.
On the one hand, the conservatives of the CDU (Merkel's party) of Armin Laschet, on the other the Social Democrats of Olaf Scholz, the current vice-chancellor. Parties that have been governing together for years under the leadership of Angela Merkel.
"I feel that people want a change, I feel it in the streets. We want this change, an SPD-led government", said Olaf Scholz. Merkel replied to him: "To guarantee stability for Germany, the chancellor must be Armin Laschet" .
Then there are the Greens, a very strong party in Germany, who are trying to take advantage of the push of Fridays for future and the tragic floods, led by Annalena Baerbock. Then the liberals of Christian Lindner, the Afd, an ultra-right party, and Linke, the extreme left.
The latest Allensbach poll attributes 26% to the Social Democrats and 25 to the CDU. Then the Greens on 17, the Liberals on 10.5, Afd on 10 and Linke on 5, poised for entry to the Bundestag.
THE GERMAN ELECTORAL SYSTEM - In Germany we vote with a pure proportional system with a high threshold, a party must obtain at least 5% of the votes to enter Parliament.
Each party stands in the elections with a candidate for chancellor, but the head of the government is elected by the Bundestag. Usually, practically always, once a governing coalition has been formed, precisely because of the pure proportional approach that makes it difficult for a single party to obtain more than 50% of the seats. This takes time, sometimes even months. And in the meantime, the previous chancellor remains in office, therefore Angela Merkel.
