Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday formally launches her campaign to win a fourth term in a September parliamentary election more likely to be decided on personality than policy. But the lacklustre CDU campaign does not appear to have hurt the re-election prospects of the veteran leader dubbed "Mutti" (Mummy) by German voters. And Merkel herself echoed the strong-leader theme in 2013, with gigantic posters featuring her fingers clasped and the slogan "Germany in good hands". But as the arrivals have slowed sharply, the issue has faded from public debate, as the upstart anti-immigration Alternative for Germany party slipped back into single digits in the polls. Tax cuts and familiesThe few concrete policies that have filtered out from the CDU party machinery, and their Bavarian CSU allies, are familiar to conservatives the world over.

Source: The Local July 03, 2017 03:22 UTC