Merkel Asks for Third Term as Steinbrueck Seeks Election Upset
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Chancellor Angela Merkel wound up her campaign for a historic third term with an appeal to voters to back her defense of the euro as Social Democrat Peer Steinbrueck pledged to give Germany renewed direction.
The candidates delivered their final arguments on the eve of today’s federal election that will decide who takes the helm of Europe’s biggest economy and assumes the pre-eminent role in European policy making. Polls put Merkel’s Christian Democratic bloc ahead yet with no clear majority for a continued alliance with the Free Democrats. The anti-euro AfD party may also win seats, further complicating post-election coalition-building.