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Merkel puts campaign on hold, heads to G20 summit
Thu Sep 24, 2009 8:17am EDT
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By Noah Barkin
BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel interrupted her election campaign on Thursday and headed to a G20 summit in the United States that she hopes will remind voters of her past triumphs on the international stage.
Merkel looks on track to win a second term in a federal vote on Sunday, but needs to shore up support in the coming days to avoid being forced into another "grand coalition" with her center-left rivals, the Social Democrats (SPD).
Her goal is to form a new center-right partnership with the business-friendly Free Democrats (FDP), a coalition she says would be better placed to get Europe's largest economy revving again after its deepest recession since World War Two.
A report by the Munich-based Ifo institute on Thursday showed German business sentiment rose to its highest level in a year in September, but the gains fell short of expectations, denting hopes for a robust recovery.
The next German government will have to rein in a surging budget deficit, cope with rising unemployment and confront fragile banks that are paring back their lending.
The G20 meeting in Pittsburgh, which will look at new financial market regulations to prevent future crises, offers Merkel an opportunity to show she is serious about the economy and to hobnob with leaders like U.S. President Barack Obama.
That could remind the electorate of the international leadership she showed in her first years in office, when she brokered deals on climate change at the European Union and G8 level, earning the nickname "Summit Queen."
"This summit comes at the right time for Merkel," said Gerd Langguth, a political scientist at Bonn University and biographer of Merkel. "It will show her in the role of leader, mingling with other heads of state and tackling an issue that voters care about -- the economy."
TIGHT RACE
Speaking to reporters in Berlin before leaving for the summit, Merkel said she would push for tighter regulation of the financial institutions whose faulty bets are blamed for unleashing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
"We have to make sure we learn the lessons of the crisis and make sure it is not repeated," Merkel said. "Politicians must have the courage to do things which are not immediately applauded by banks worldwide.
Final polls released this week before the vote showed Merkel's conservative bloc -- her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU) -- with a 9-11 point lead over the SPD.
That advantage suggests Merkel has a good chance of winning a second term on Sunday.
But whether she will be able to secure the center-right coalition that eluded her in 2005 is far from certain. Polls show that her conservatives, together with the FDP, hold a meager 1-3 point lead over the other main parties in parliament -- the SPD, environmentalist Greens and Left party.
As leader of a center-right government, Merkel has said she would pursue tax relief to get the economy going again and extend the life of nuclear plants that are scheduled to be phased out over the next decade. Continued...
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