German election: the race to replace Angela Merkel and why it matters to New Zealand

From a distance, the big news about Germany's coming election on September 26 is the end of Angela Merkel's reign after 16 years of leadership in Germany and Europe. Closer up, with no clear front-runner to take Merkel's place, the picture is far more complex. Seemingly on track for a clear victory until February, the prospects of Merkel's centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party the Christian Social Union (CSU) have waned, as first the Greens and then the Social Democrats (SPD) narrowly topped the surprisingly volatile polls. Merkel's successor will be determined by the politics of…