Could Martin Schulz put Merkel off the trail?

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Europe

Germany heads to the polls later this year to elect a new Chancellor and despite a slow campaign start, Angela Merkel may continue to lead the government.

Her main challenger, Social Democrat Martin Schulz, is well aware that he faces an uphill battle against her.

It's little wonder perhaps that he would try hard to damage the image of a woman who has led the government for the last 12 years and headed the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) for 16.

Merkel is the longest-serving leader of any major Western democracy.

String of allegations

In a series of accusations, Martin Schulz questioned Merkel's leadership.

In his latest attack, he lashed out at the Chancellor for her changing approach to the auto sector, claiming she repeatedly changed her views on the need to develop electric vehicles.

He has also demanded that auto manufacturers cough up to pay for the widening emissions scandal.

Germany's Social Democratic Party candidate for chancellor Martin Schulz arrives for a TV interview with public broadcaster ZDF on August 13, 2017 in Berlin. /AFP Photo

Germany's auto industry is the country's biggest exporter and one of its largest employers.

It has become a hot election topic because of a blame game between parliamentarians and executives, who accuse each other of the sector's battered reputation after a diesel emissions scandal two years ago.

Schulz also raised tough questions about Merkel's integration policy.

"We must ask what is wrong when young people, who are born here, cheer in our stadiums for a leader like Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan or succumb to the seductive extremist ideology of the so-called ISIL," German media quoted Schulz as saying.

"This should put us in a state of unrest", he said.

Refusal to engage

Merkel has often been accused of avoiding combative debate and this has also angered Schulz, who called it “an attack on democracy”.

"A Chancellor who does not tell voters what she intends to do is neglecting her duty and that endangers the future of the country," he said in a recent statement.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel gives a speech during an election campaign event in Dortmund on August 12, 2017. /AFP Photo

"The German elections are tough to understand from a foreign point of view because there's hardly any polarization," political scientist Timo Lochocki of the German Marshall Fund of the US told the AFP news agency.

"The SPD can't polarize the campaign alone. The CDU doesn't answer, so (the campaign) is dying," he said.

Re-election campaign

As Schulz launched his latest salvo, Merkel was on a hiking trip.

She did not hit back and kicked off her re-election campaign over the weekend, seeking a fourth term in office with dozens of rallies scheduled.

“I nearly forgot to say, the election hasn’t been decided and of course, we need every vote," she stated in a speech during her campaign tour.

CDU's campaign poster, showing a young woman sleeping in a meadow, drew ridicule. /Twitter

Polls suggest Europe's biggest economy isn’t headed for any surprises, with Merkel’s CDU polling at 37 percent to the Social Democrat’s 25 percent.

"It is probably the strangest election race in the history of the Federal Republic," Heribert Prantl of the Sueddeutsche Zeitung paper wrote last week.

"There is no wind, never mind a wind of change."

(With input from AFP, Reuters)