Germans vote amid economic worries, terror threats

BERLIN – Germans voted yesterday on whether to give Chancellor Angela Merkel a second term at the helm of Europe’s largest economy, as the country faces rising unemployment and threats by Islamic extremists over Germany’s role in Afghanistan.

Merkel is hoping enough of the nation’s 62,2 million eligible voters support her conservative Christian Democratic Party so she can dissolve her current coalition with the leftist Social Democrats and form a centre-right coalition with the pro-business Free Democrats.’Merkel did a good job and I want her to stay,’ said Nicole Selka, 32, as she pushed her 18-month-old son in a stroller outside a Berlin polling station.Security was tight yesterday across Germany, following a rash of threats by Islamic extremists who threatened retaliation if Germany does not pull its 4 200 troops out of the Nato mission in Afghanistan.One of the final surveys before voting began yesterday indicated the conservatives could capture 33 per cent of the vote, while the Free Democrats were supported by 14 per cent. The results of the Forsa poll would give the two parties a razor-thin majority in parliament over any coalition that Social Democrats could engineer.The Forsa survey gave only 25 per cent of the vote to the Social Democrats. It questioned 2 001 people and had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.Among the other parties currently in parliament, the Greens polled at 10 percent, just behind the Left party at 12 per cent.Despite possibly being the third-strongest party, both the Christian and Social Democrats have ruled out a coalition with the Left, which burst onto the political spectrum in 2005 after ex-Communists banded together with former Social Democrats who were disenchanted by their party’s swing to the center.The Social Democrats, in power since 1998, are facing historical lows. Many analysts have argued they could benefit from a period in opposition.Both Merkel and her main challenger, Frank-Walter Steinmeier of the Social Democrats, ignored the Islamic threats in their final rallies on Saturday, focusing instead on the key domestic issues of jobs and economic recovery.Yesterday, both party leaders voted at their local polling stations in Berlin, accompanied by their spouses.’I am hoping for a strong voter turnout and a strengthening of democracy,’ Steinmeier told reporters as he voted.Two threatening videos surfaced on Friday – one by al Qaeda and another by the Taliban. The Taliban video showed top German landmarks like the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin and Munich’s world-renowned Oktoberfest beer festival.In response to the extremists’ threats, authorities on Saturday banned all flights over Oktoberfest until it ends on October. 4. The annual 16-day beer festival draws some 6 million visitors from around the globe. – Nampa-AP