BERLIN:The conservative candidate to succeed German Chancellor Angela Merkel fought to revive his campaign on Sunday in a heated debate with his two main rivals after polls showed his party falling behind the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD).
Armin Laschet, the leader of Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU), traded blows with Greens candidate Annalena Baerbock, who accused the CDU and SPD of doing too little to fight climate change, especially given devastating floods this summer.
“You obviously don’t have a plan,” Baerbock said, pledging to install solar panels on every roof and ban the sale of combustion engine vehicles from 2030.
Laschet, who has been under fire since he was caught on camera laughing during a visit last month to a town hit by floods, said Baerbock’s policies would hurt German industry.
“You shackle industry and then tell them to run faster,” he said.
Germany goes to the polls on Sept. 26 when Merkel steps down as chancellor after 16 years in office and four straight national election victories. Merkel’s imminent departure has weakened support for her conservative alliance.
Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, the SPD’s candidate who is the most popular in polls, kept calm as the exchange became heated, focusing on financial topics such as taxes and pensions.
Support for the SPD rose two points from last week to 24%, their highest result in four years according to the INSA poll conducted for the Bild am Sonntag newspaper. The conservatives slipped one point to 21%, their lowest ever polled by INSA.
It was the second survey in the last week that has put the SPD ahead. Support for Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), has been falling steadily in recent weeks.
In a hypothetical direct vote for chancellor, the INSA poll showed that Scholz would take 31% of the vote, compared with 10% for Laschet and 14% for Baerbock.
Despite the SPD’s lead in the polls, they would still need to team up with two other parties to govern.
Bavarian premier Markus Soeder, who has rejected calls to replace Laschet as the conservative candidate, said that Germany would shift to the left under a SPD-led government. He said he hoped the debate will help Laschet turn the tide.
“He (Laschet) can become chancellor and would do a good job of leading Germany,” he told ARD television before the debate.
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