Merkel moves closer to fourth consecutive term as Chancellor

On the evening of September 11, local time, Ms. Angela Merkel - candidate for German Chancellor for the next term, had a televised question-and-answer session before 150 people representing about 60 million German voters participating in the Federal Parliament election on September 24.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel. (Source: AFP/Getty Images)

In fact, this is a TV show called Wahlarena (Election Stage) on the ARD channel, a "Germanized" version of the live televised debates between candidates in the US presidential election.

During the 75-minute session, Ms. Merkel, candidate of the Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU), answered many questions. The issues covered were quite diverse, from pensions, childcare, care for the disabled, environmental protection, agriculture, refugees, racism, the diesel engine emissions scandal, the German army, and the tense relationship between Germany and Türkiye.

Although there were many differences in content compared to the live televised debate on September 3 with Social Democratic Party (SPD) Chancellor candidate Martin Schulz, like last time, Ms. Merkel almost did not put forward any truly new, groundbreaking ideas.

The current German Chancellor's priority is to continue to do well what she has pursued for the past 12 years, with three terms as head of government.

Economic policy is Chancellor Angela Merkel's strongest point. Despite the world going through many fluctuations and crises, the German economy still grows impressively. Last year, Germany's trade surplus reached a record high and the unemployment rate was at its lowest since the time of German reunification. Thanks to economic development, Germany has the conditions to solve social welfare well, improving the living standards of the majority of people. Even receiving more than one million refugees in the past two years, along with solving housing, daily life, education, health care, employment... that is not a big problem for Germany.

While everything is going well, the German people seem to not want any change after the upcoming Federal Parliamentary elections. Grasping that mentality, Ms. Merkel emphasized that German voters should continue to trust and support her, as well as the CDU/CSU coalition, so that Germany can always bring a good life to all German people as they are enjoying.

It is expected that on September 17, Mr. Martin Schulz - Mrs. Merkel's opponent in the race for the Chancellor's seat, will participate in Wahlarena to answer questions from voters. The results of recent public opinion polls in Germany show that the CDU/CSU's support rate is far higher than that of the SPD, and Mrs. Merkel is leading by a large distance compared to Mr. Schulz. This means that Mrs. Merkel is very close to her fourth consecutive term as German Chancellor./.

According to Vietnamplus