Photo: DPAChancellor Angela Merkel's party on Thursday placed the German flag front and centre in its campaign advertising for September elections, in a bid to snatch back a claim on patriotism from anti-immigration populists. The deployment of the German flag is unusual in a country that has largely shied away from outward displays of patriotism after Nazism. The decision to campaign with the German flag is also interesting given an episode during celebrations of the CDU's last election victory in 2013, when Merkel took a German flag out of the hand of a party colleague and removed it from the stage. Amid the refugee crisis, video footage of the scene was shared on YouTube by right-wing nationalists, who claimed it was proof Merkel didn't respect Germany. Taking the initiative to define what it means to be German, Merkel said in her letter to Bild that it includes C for "Christian-Jewish tradition" and L for "Luther's Bible" but also M for "Muslim" and "migration background".

Source: The Local June 23, 2017 08:03 UTC