German election: Polls open in tight race to elect new chancellor
Al Jazeera
Tens of millions of Germans cast ballots in what is seen as the first real contest in many years and marks the end of Angela Merkel’s time in office.
Berlin, Germany – Voters across Germany head to polling stations on Sunday to determine the country’s next government and the chancellor who will lead it.
The election will be the first since the county reunified in 1990 that Angela Merkel will not run in as a candidate. After 16 years in the chancellery, the woman who became the defining European leader of her era will step aside once a new government is formed.
Opinion polls have narrowed in the final week but the Social Democrats (SPD) still hold a slight lead over Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its sister party, the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU), making it the first real contest in many years.
