Campaign to succeed Merkel enters critical stretch

BERLIN — Chancellor Angela Merkel’s would-be successor pledged Saturday to “fight with everything that I can” for victory in Germany’s Sept. 26 election, as the longtime leader’s center-right bloc kicked off its official campaign amid a worrying sag in its poll ratings.

Merkel joined Armin Laschet, a state governor and leader of her Christian Democratic Union party, to appeal to voters to extend the party’s long run in the chancellery. Laschet is running to succeed Merkel after her 16 years in office.

They both spoke at a rally in Berlin, with only a small crowd because of coronavirus restrictions, as recent polls have shown support for the Union bloc slipping as low as 23% — leaving it only a few points ahead of the center-left Social Democrats and the environmentalist Greens.

The polls also have shown dismal personal popularity ratings for Laschet, as Social Democratic rival Olaf Scholz — the vice chancellor in Merkel’s coalition government — has gained ground.

Merkel announced in 2018 that she wouldn’t seek a fifth term as chancellor. The Union took 32.9% of the vote in the last election, in 2017. In its best result under Merkel, the bloc won 41.5% in 2013.

Laschet assailed left-wing rivals, arguing they plan tax increases that would risk strangling the economy as it recovers from the pandemic and questioning how reliable they are on foreign policy. He stressed the Union’s law-andorder credentials and insisted that offering economic incentives rather than prohibitions is the best way to combat climate change without damaging industry.

“We will fight — I will fight with everything that I can — so that this country is not taken over by ideologues, so that we have the opportunity to implement our ideas for this modern Germany,” Laschet said. “That is what we are fighting for. We will give everything we can, we will make the differences with the others clear. Who governs is fundamental. We want to govern.”

Laschet is a centrist figure in Merkel’s mold but doesn’t appear so far to have inspired voters or to have impressed people with his management of the severe floods that hit his state, North Rhine-Westphalia — Germany’s most populous — last month.