Germany heads to the polls on Sunday against the backdrop of political turmoil. Who are the candidates hoping to become the next chancellor?
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00:00Germany heads to the polls on Sunday against the backdrop of political turmoil, so who
00:12are the candidates hoping to become the next Chancellor? Well, the Christian Democratic
00:17Union, or CDU, is polling as the frontrunner, led by the former asset manager Friedrich
00:23Merz. The party is proposing to cut taxes, tighten welfare-slash-immigration, process
00:29asylum claims abroad, and boost aid to Ukraine. Chancellor Olaf Scholz leads the Social Democratic
00:37Party, or the SPD, which aims to support low-income families by cutting VAT on food and raising
00:44the minimum wage. It wants to curb immigration and has also proposed a $100 billion infrastructure
00:51investment fund. On Ukraine, Scholz wants to maintain support, but has raised questions
00:58about future funding. Well, the far-right Alternative for Deutschland, or AFD, is co-led
01:04by Alice Fadel and Tino Karupala. It has endorsed the concept of re-immigration, the mass deportation
01:11of migrants. It also pledges dropping the euro for a return to the Deutschmark, military
01:18conscription, and sweeping education reforms. Germany's Green Party has named the economy
01:24minister Robert Haberk as its candidate for Chancellor. The party wants a billionaire
01:30tax to help poorer households through the green transition. It's also in favour of increasing
01:36the minimum wage and pushing for incentives to speed up the switch to renewable energy.