Merkel Joins CDU Campaign For Laschet

Merkel will join Laschet at a campaign event in Berlin on August 21, according to a report by Berlin’s Tagesspiegel newspaper.

Merkel has so far played almost no role in the campaign — including the battle over who would be the conservatives’ lead candidate — and there had previously been no confirmation that she would join Laschet on the trail, Politico.eu reports.

A new poll shows that the Social Democrats and the Greens are close to catching up with the CDU/CSU bloc, less than seven weeks before the September 26 ballot.

On the other hand, outgoing Chancellor Merkel is still extremely popular among voters, with one survey from July 30 showing she’s the most popular German politician by some distance, followed by Bavarian state premier and CSU chief Markus Söder. Laschet was in ninth place out of 10, with only the Greens’ lead candidate Annalena Baerbock performing worse.