Millions of Germans undecided: dpa's election campaign brief
Even though polls have barely budged during the German election campaign, millions of voters remain undecided, pollsters say, even with just two days before the country casts ballots in a highly consequential election.
That's raised hopes among candidates and party campaigners that they can find some last-minute traction with the German public. The Forsa polling outfit says 22% haven't picked a party yet, while a new YouGov survey put that figure at 20%.
For one last time before German voters cast their ballots on February 23, dpa is bringing you the highlights - and lowlights - from the campaign trail.
Los geht's!
Conservatives firmly in first place
But whatever hopes undecided voters might stir, polls have shown a very clear - and barely shifting - picture at the top of the race.
Friedrich Merz's Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), have held a commanding lead for months. That's why other world leaders have already been treating Merz, the clear front-runner, as the chancellor-in-waiting even before the ballots have been cast.
The latest Forsa poll on Friday for private broadcasters RTL/ntv showed the centre-right bloc down a point at 29%, but still well ahead of the second-place far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) at 21%.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz's centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), meanwhile, had hoped for a comeback over the course of the campaign but have been stuck at 14% to 17%, leading to fading hopes that Scholz could somehow hang on for another term.
As the latest Forsa poll puts the SPD down a point at 15%, Scholz is headed to Dortmund for a final Friday evening rally, after which he'll presumably pray for an election day miracle.
Dortmund is the biggest city in the Ruhr region, Germany's old coal-and-steel industrial heartland, and the legions of trade union workers there long provided the Social Democrats with their electoral might.
Polls have been wrong before, of course, but there's been remarkably little variation in Germany's truncated campaign.
Russia behind fake videos?
Made-up videos purporting to show voting problems have been circulating online, usually casting the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) as the victim.
A fake video set in the eastern city of Leipzig shows a paper ballot without the AfD listed as an option, while another fabricated video claiming to be filmed in Hamburg shows ballots marked for the AfD tossed into the shredder.
German security authorities have indications that both fake videos are part of a disinformation campaign by the Russian outfit "Storm 1516," according to Maximilian Kall, spokesman for the German Interior Ministry.
That would hardly be the first time Russian propagandists have tried to sow chaos in a Western election.
'It's about democracy'
You know things must be serious when athletes chime in on politics.
Coach Niko Kovac from ailing Borussia Dortmund, who as a Berlin-based Croatian national is not eligible to vote on Sunday, urged Germans to exercise their democratic right and cast their ballots.
"It's about democracy," said the 53-year-old, adding he hoped that "every single person" casts their vote.
Quote of the day: Bodo Ramelow
"We are the hit of this federal election. Nobody had us on their radar."
- Bodo Ramelow, the top candidate for The Left, is all praise after the far-left fringe party surged within just a few weeks from below the 5% threshold usually needed to take seats to up to 8% in the latest polls.
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