IT is fair to say that the vast majority of Germans have been raised to heights of frenzied apathy by the 2017 election campaign - despite the tectonic changes it will wreak on the national landscape..
Angela "Mummy" Merkel is cruising for a comfortable win, notwithstanding a few close encounters with airborne tomatoes, campaign-trail insults and a cleaning lady who pinned her down on air about her paltry pension after 40 years of work.
Her so-called prime-time TV confrontation with rival Martin Schulz of the centre-left Social Democratic party was so dull, the exchanges between Europe's most powerful woman and the former EU President who wants to unseat her that it was dubbed a "duet instead of a duel."
Germans, a rather insular people, have not taken to the streets en masse demanding change. The economy is whirring, joblessness palatably low, the emissions scandals of the car giants seemingly remote from everyday life.
This disinterest in the election comes despite the fact that after the vote is in, their country will have changed - and changed forever.
For although the preacher's daughter raised in the former communist east of a divided land will enter the history books by dint of her fourth victory, there is a dark and sinister corollary to it, that she - and most of her countrymen - prefer not to talk about.
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Her decision to open the country's borders to unchecked immigration over the past two years has opened the Pandora's Box of the country's dark past, propelling into the parliament that bogeyman that all Germany's leaders feared most: a hard right-wing opposition tapping into the basest emotions of the national character.
The Alternative for Germany party (AfD) is set to win seats at the polls on Sunday. In four of the last five polls conducted before Sunday's vote, the anti-immigrant, EU-sceptic party has pulled up to third place. What began as an act of great humanity, borne in part out of Germany's lingering guilt for the Second World War, has morphed into Ms Merkel's political legacy: perhaps, in the long run, even her epitaph.
Across the economic powerhouse of the continent the social fabric of society has been tearing ever thinner. While bogus right-wing scare stories of migrants raping, abusing, burgling and stealing have proved to be - mostly - unfounded, their presence alone has served to trigger the biggest rise in right-wing support since the 1930's. A survey published last weekend by the polling institute Emnid has the AfD on 11%, behind Ms Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union on 36% and the centre-left SPD on 22%.
They have also provided what passes for excitement on the tepid campaign trail. Bearing "Merkel Get Lost" and "Merkel Must Go" banners - as well as hurling tomatoes at the chancellor - the AfD is the only jolt in an otherwise snoozy vote-harvest.
However many AfD candidates end up in parliament - and one poll projects they will win 89 seats out of 703 - they will have been put there by disaffected voters who deserted Ms Merkel's CDU for the AfD in droves. And with 15 percent of voters still undecided, the outcome could still be more painful than she currently imagines.
This, say observers, is proof of the greatest fear among liberal politicians - citizens pushed into the embrace of the far-right and its intolerant attitudes which brought Hitler to power in the 1930's. Given the dangers lurking in this election, one might have expected more fire in the belly from Ms. Merkel, more passion from the blue collar prophet Mr. Schulz in their respective bids to woo the electorate.
But election campaigns in Germany - whether local, regional or national - are not the boisterous affairs seen in many other countries. In their one and only debate, the SPD leader Schulz succumbed to extreme civility and blew his one and only chance to revive a lackluster campaign. Their 90-minute faceoff on September 3 was more a gentle trading of ideas - about refugees, the economy and even President Trump- than a political brawling match. Mr. Schulz lived up to his reputation as a charisma-free zone, Ms Merkel to her "Mutti" ('Mummy") nickname, alternately lecturing and admonishing.
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Migration tensions seep into German election campaign
Will Merkel's low-key, serious style win her a fourth term as chancellor of Germany?
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The chancellor is not known for her light popular touch. When hospital cleaner Petra Vogel confronted her on TV to complain that 40 years of working have earned her a pension of just 654 euros(Dh2,855) per month, Mrs. Merkel was lost for words and short on empathy.
It is hard to define exactly where Mr. Schulz went wrong, except perhaps to say he is no Angela Merkel. Indeed, there is simply no-one on the horizon of any party to match up to her.
His years steeped in EU burocracy also seem to have exorcised any ability he once had to connect with the man in the street.
Those who thought the Greens might rise once more in Europe's most environmentally-friendly nation have been bitterly disappointed too. The party is currently polling at around eight percent, its raft of new energy proposals failing to enthuse voters.
The general Gleichgültigkeit - apathy - surrounding the election appears to have at least benefitted the far-left Die Linke party, with polls indicating it has the support of 10 per cent of the voting population - enough to make it a force to be reckoned with in parliament.
Come 6.00pm on Sunday evening when the first of the exit polls will - usually with uncanny accuracy - predict the winner of the next election, Germany will be a different place for Angela Merkel to govern.
Being the one who created the problem of the AfD in the first place her task - if she gets four more years - will be to somehow solve it and steer Germany back on to the middle way it so cherishes.
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Infiniti QX80 specs
Engine: twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V6
Power: 450hp
Torque: 700Nm
Price: From Dh450,000, Autograph model from Dh510,000
Available: Now
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Labour dispute
The insured employee may still file an ILOE claim even if a labour dispute is ongoing post termination, but the insurer may suspend or reject payment, until the courts resolve the dispute, especially if the reason for termination is contested. The outcome of the labour court proceedings can directly affect eligibility.
- Abdullah Ishnaneh, Partner, BSA Law
It Was Just an Accident
Director: Jafar Panahi
Stars: Vahid Mobasseri, Mariam Afshari, Ebrahim Azizi, Hadis Pakbaten, Majid Panahi, Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr
Rating: 4/5
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
If you go
The flights
There are various ways of getting to the southern Serengeti in Tanzania from the UAE. The exact route and airstrip depends on your overall trip itinerary and which camp you’re staying at.
Flydubai flies direct from Dubai to Kilimanjaro International Airport from Dh1,350 return, including taxes; this can be followed by a short flight from Kilimanjaro to the Serengeti with Coastal Aviation from about US$700 (Dh2,500) return, including taxes. Kenya Airways, Emirates and Etihad offer flights via Nairobi or Dar es Salaam.
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
Like a Fading Shadow
Antonio Muñoz Molina
Translated from the Spanish by Camilo A. Ramirez
Tuskar Rock Press (pp. 310)
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
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Game Of Thrones Season Seven: A Bluffers Guide
Want to sound on message about the biggest show on television without actually watching it? Best not to get locked into the labyrinthine tales of revenge and royalty: as Isaac Hempstead Wright put it, all you really need to know from now on is that there’s going to be a huge fight between humans and the armies of undead White Walkers.
The season ended with a dragon captured by the Night King blowing apart the huge wall of ice that separates the human world from its less appealing counterpart. Not that some of the humans in Westeros have been particularly appealing, either.
Anyway, the White Walkers are now free to cause any kind of havoc they wish, and as Liam Cunningham told us: “Westeros may be zombie land after the Night King has finished.” If the various human factions don’t put aside their differences in season 8, we could be looking at The Walking Dead: The Medieval Years.
German intelligence warnings
- 2002: "Hezbollah supporters feared becoming a target of security services because of the effects of [9/11] ... discussions on Hezbollah policy moved from mosques into smaller circles in private homes." Supporters in Germany: 800
- 2013: "Financial and logistical support from Germany for Hezbollah in Lebanon supports the armed struggle against Israel ... Hezbollah supporters in Germany hold back from actions that would gain publicity." Supporters in Germany: 950
- 2023: "It must be reckoned with that Hezbollah will continue to plan terrorist actions outside the Middle East against Israel or Israeli interests." Supporters in Germany: 1,250
Source: Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution
Specs
Engine: Electric motor generating 54.2kWh (Cooper SE and Aceman SE), 64.6kW (Countryman All4 SE)
Power: 218hp (Cooper and Aceman), 313hp (Countryman)
Torque: 330Nm (Cooper and Aceman), 494Nm (Countryman)
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh158,000 (Cooper), Dh168,000 (Aceman), Dh190,000 (Countryman)
Sanju
Produced: Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Rajkumar Hirani
Director: Rajkumar Hirani
Cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Vicky Kaushal, Paresh Rawal, Anushka Sharma, Manish’s Koirala, Dia Mirza, Sonam Kapoor, Jim Sarbh, Boman Irani
Rating: 3.5 stars
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MATCH INFO
Austria 2
Hinteregger (53'), Schopf (69')
Germany 1
Ozil (11')
Where to buy
Limited-edition art prints of The Sofa Series: Sultani can be acquired from Reem El Mutwalli at www.reemelmutwalli.com
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
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THE%20SWIMMERS
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Veere di Wedding
Dir: Shashanka Ghosh
Starring: Kareena Kapoo-Khan, Sonam Kapoor, Swara Bhaskar and Shikha Talsania
Verdict: 4 Stars
Mountain%20Boy
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