Berlin ¨C A shadow is looming over Germany¡¯s election: the specter of the far-left Linke party, heir to the communists who once ruled East Germany, coming in from the political wilderness.
At least, that is what Angela Merkel¡¯s conservatives want voters to think. Behind in polls just days before Sunday¡¯s vote, her would-be successor is warning that Social Democrats, if victorious, would let the far-left into power.
¡°You have to have a clear position on the extremists,¡± conservative candidate Armin Laschet told his Social Democratic rival Olaf Scholz during a televised debate earlier this month. ¡°I don¡¯t understand why it¡¯s so hard for you to say ¡®I won¡¯t enter a coalition with this party¡¯.¡±
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