Merkel legacy in balance as party risks election defeat

Chancellor Merkel turned out in Aachen to give her would-be conservaitve successor a final push ahead of the vote

German Chancellor Angela Merkel may be lauded abroad for her cool crisis management -- at home, her legacy risks being tarnished by a botched succession with her party projected to return its worst post-war score in Sunday's election.

As Germans head to the polls, surveys show Merkel's conservative CDU-CSU alliance led by Armin Laschet just a touch behind challenger Olaf Scholz's Social Democratic Party and facing the threat of crashing out of government altogether after 16 years in power.

"Only if (he) wins.. will it be possible for the CDU to reconcile itself with 16 years of government under Merkel."

But her fateful decision to keep Germany's borders open to migrants in 2015 sparked a huge blowback from her party and even other EU countries, leading to a string of regional election defeats. The setbacks ultimately prompted her in 2018 to announce she was retiring from politics.

Left with few good options, the conservatives finally plumped for Laschet, their current unpopular CDU chief and Merkel's would-be successor.

With discontent lingering in the losers' camps from the prior leadership fights, a defeat for the conservatives would likely topple Laschet and set the stage for a new vicious power struggle.

- Vacuum -

But Laschet was seen chuckling behind President Frank-Walter Steinmeier as he paid tribute to victims of deadly floods in July, an image that would drastically turn the mood against him and his party.

And damaging corruption scandals over mask procurement deals during the pandemic have also added to the bad press plaguing the party.

"What is clear in the last years is that everyone who stood closest behind Merkel has been able to benefit from it. It's not the distance to her that helps in the surveys, but the impression of being almost identical to her," said Karl-Rudolf Korte of Duisburg University.

Just 24 hours before the vote, she also raced to Aachen, Laschet's stomping ground, to give a last push for him.

Thorsten Faas of Berlin's Free University noted that the hole left behind by Merkel was also an indication of her strength.

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