Rival Accuses Merkel of Being Slow to Act Over Diesel Crisis
- SPD’s Schulz sharpens German campaign tone with a month to go
- German machinebuilders rebuke politicians over diesel scandal
How Germany Votes: Everything You Need to Know
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s main election opponent stepped up his attacks on her record, portraying her as slow to tackle the country’s diesel-car crisis, soft on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and out of touch with voters.
With four weeks left in the German campaign, Social Democratic Party challenger Martin Schulz leveled his broadest criticism yet at Merkel, whose Christian Democratic-led bloc leads the SPD by as many as 17 percentage points in national polls. The skirmish in separate television interviews offered a foretaste of the only TV debate between the two candidates on Sept. 3.