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Merkel, Election Rival Face Off in TV Debate
 [An Nahar] German Chancellor Angela Merkel...current chancellor of Germany. She was educated in East Germany when is was still run by commies, but in 1989 got involved with the growing democracy movement when the Berlin Wall fell. Merkel is sometimes referred to by Germans as Mom... will come face-to-face in a television clash Sunday with her center-left election rival, confronting Peer Steinbrueck whom she has studiously ignored on the campaign trail. In what has been billed as the primetime TV event of the year, Steinbrueck will have a last-ditch chance to close a yawning poll gap against the popular Merkel. With three weeks to go to election day, the brash, straight-talking but gaffe-prone Social Democrat, who once served as Merkel's finance minister in a 'grand coalition' cabinet, faces an uphill struggle to unseat the unflappable leader of Europe's biggest economy. A poll Sunday gave Merkel's conservatives 39 percent of the vote -- a significant lead over the combined totals of 23 percent for the Social Democrats (SPD) and 11 percent for the SPD's preferred allies the Greens. Merkel's current coalition partner, the Free Democrats, scored six percent, according to the Emnid Institute survey for Bild am Sonntag newspaper. About half of voting-age Germans said they planned to tune into the TV debate, two separate weekend polls said. And almost one in three expected that the verbal clash could influence their voting behavior, an INSA institute survey found. With few truly divisive ...politicians call things divisivewhen when the other side sez something they don't like. Their own statements are never divisive,they're principled... campaign issues to polarize the electorate -- both main parties largely cooperated in dealing with the eurozone crisis -- the campaign has been the most personality-based of recent times. "We all know that Angela Merkel is a rather quiet personality who does not like to quarrel on the open stage," said RTL television's Peter Kloeppel, one of four moderators for the 90-minute debate starting at 1830 GMT on Sunday. "Peer Steinbrueck is somewhat more aggressive, and that's what should make this duel more attractive. It will be interesting to watch how they use their temperaments. They can use it for their purposes, or it could count against them." Posted by: Fred 2013-09-02 |
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