German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her beleaguered rival Martin Schulz embark on a final push for votes Friday ahead of a weekend election, both seeking to beat back a challenge from the emboldened hard-right. The anti-immigration, anti-Muslim party Alternative for Germany (AfD) looks set to easily clear the five-percent hurdle to representation in parliament in a historic post-war first. "Go vote and vote for the parties that are 100 percent loyal to our constitution," Merkel told Germans in a swipe at the AfD. Last-minute turnaroundThe AfD is currently polling at around 11 percent, deeply unsettling the mainstream parties that have governed Germany since the war. "That antagonizes AfD supporters, who in the CDU's confidence of victory see further evidence of the arrogance of power in the late Merkel years."

Source: The Local September 22, 2017 10:07 UTC