Parliamentary elections are being held in Germany on Sunday, with four favorites for the position of chancellor.
The current chancellor, Olaf Scholz, a center-left Social Democrat, has extensive experience in government, having previously served as mayor of Hamburg and as labor and finance minister. Scholz launched efforts to modernize Germany's military after Russia's invasion of Ukraine and made it Ukraine's second-largest supplier. His government averted an energy crisis and tried to combat high inflation. But his three-party coalition became notorious for infighting and fell apart in November last year as it debated how to revitalize Germany's economy, which has shrunk in the past two years.
Friedrich Merz, the opposition leader, was the favorite in the election campaign, and his center-right bloc is leading in the polls. He became leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party after longtime Chancellor Angela Merkel stepped down in 2021. Merz has steered his party in a more conservative direction, and in the election campaign, he made combating irregular migration a top priority. He was a member of the European Parliament in 1989 and five years later became a member of the German parliament. He took a break from active politics for several years after 2009. Merz also worked as a lawyer for several years and was head of the supervisory board of the German branch of the firm Black Rock.
Robert Habek is the Greens' candidate and is currently Vice Chancellor and Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate, responsible for energy issues. As co-leader of the Greens from 2018 to 2022, he was credited with boosting the party's popularity, but stepped down in 2021 to allow Analene Baerbock, now Germany's Foreign Minister, to run for chancellor. Habek's record as a minister has drawn mixed criticism, particularly over a plan his ministry drew up to replace fossil-fuel heating systems with greener alternatives that has deepened divisions within the government.
Alice Weidel is the candidate of the far-right anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD). An economist by training, Weidel joined the party shortly after it was founded in 2013. She has been the leader of the parliamentary group since the AfD first won seats in parliament in 2017. She has been the leader of the party itself since 2022, along with Tina Črupal. She was nominated as the candidate for chancellor in December, although other parties have said they will not cooperate with the AfD.
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