- Title: Greens candidate goes to the polls in German election
- Date: 26th September 2021
- Summary: POTSDAM, GERMANY (SEPTEMBER 26, 2021) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF GREENS CHANCELLOR CANDIDATE ANNALENA BAERBOCK AND HER HUSBAND DANIEL HOLEFLEISCH ARRIVING AT POLLING STATION BAERBOCK STANDING IN LINE, PETTING DOG MEDIA SURROUNDING BAERBOCK BAERBOCK ENTERING POLLING STATION VARIOUS OF BAERBOCK VOTING BAERBOCK LEAVING POLLING STATION BAERBOCK WALKING TO MICROPHONES (SOUNDBITE) (German) GREENS CHANCELLOR CANDIDATE, ANNALENA BAERBOCK, SAYING: "Every vote counts in this election as we have seen in recent weeks, how tight the race is. Of course, we hope for more votes than the latest opinion polls suggest. So we can have a new beginning in Germany." MEDIA (SOUNDBITE) (German) GREENS CHANCELLOR CANDIDATE, ANNALENA BAERBOCK, SAYING: "Well, polls are polls. Today we are voting and at 1800 (1600 GMT) we will have the first numbers. And then we will see whether we have a real awakening. And I sincerely invite those who have not voted yet to do so in a democratic fashion on this very nice summer's day and vote for a new beginning. At 1800 (1600 GMT) we are the wiser." BAERBOCK LEAVING
- Embargoed: 10th October 2021 12:36
- Keywords: Annalena Baerbock German election Greens climate
- Location: POTSDAM, GERMANY
- City: POTSDAM, GERMANY
- Country: Germany
- Topics: Europe,Government/Politics,Elections/Voting
- Reuters ID: LVA001EWCU43R
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Germany's chairwoman for the Greens and candidate for chancellor Annalena Baerbock and her husband Daniel Holefleisch cast their on Sunday in a national election that was too close to call, with the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) mounting a strong challenge to retiring Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives.
Baerbock who according to opinion polls is out of the immediate race for chancellor, still urged everyone to cast their votes, saying that "polls are polls". Only at 1800 when the first numbers are being called "we are the wiser," she told the media after casting her vote in her constituency in Potsdam.
A fractured electorate means that after the election, leading parties will sound each other out before embarking on more formal coalition negotiations that could take months, leaving Merkel, 67, in charge in a caretaker role.
Running against CDU's Armin Laschet is Olaf Scholz of the SPD, the finance minister in Merkel's right-left coalition who won all three televised debates between the leading candidates.
The election is expected to yield a splintered parliament, which will force the winner to form a three-way coalition to secure a majority.
The most likely coalition scenarios see either the SPD or the conservative CDU/CSU bloc - whoever comes first - forming an alliance with the Greens and the liberal Free Democrats (FDP).
The Greens favour a common European fiscal policy to support investment in the environment, research, infrastructure, and education.
Germany has long been in the vanguard of climate activism, giving birth to the first Green Party to win national prominence, and all parties are committed to action on climate change.
But its population also has the oldest median age in the European Union, and successive elections have revealed a gulf between the young, most exposed to the long-term impact of rising temperatures, and the old for whom climate change is one of many competing worries.
After a recent television debate, polls found that more than half those aged 18-34 thought Baerbock, the Green candidate, had won, compared to a fifth of older people, who were far more convinced by the SPD's and conservatives' candidates.
Scholz has not ruled out a leftist coalition with the Greens and the Left party, which wants to pull Germany out of NATO, a red line for the SPD.
(Production: Ute Swart, Barbara Woolsey) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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