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Germany changes but not on election day
German election campaigns often begin with predictions of great change – but then everything stays more or less the same. There has been a lot of media excitement about the rise of the Green party. Yet the most popular candidate – though not the most likely one – to succeed Chancellor Angela Merkel after the parliamentary elections on 26 September is her clone, Social Democrat Finance Minister Olaf Scholz. The favourite, Armin Laschet, chairman of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, is a middle-of-the road Rhinelander. He’s a less convincing and experienced personality than Scholz but the CDU’s deep ... (full story)