Angela Merkel to face challenge for her job from her deputy
GERMAN vice-chancellor Sigmar Gabriel will challenge his boss Angela Merkel for the top job in the general election set for September.
Sigmar Gabriel will challenge Angela Merkel for the top job in Germany's general election set for Se
The leader of the centre left SPD party, currently playing a supporting role as the junior coalition partner in the German government, hopes the capitalise on voter weariness to prevent Mrs Merkel gaining a fourth term in office.
He is due to announce whether he will officially run at the end of this month, but Bild announced on Tuesday that he is the candidate.
Quoting party sources, Bild said that he has decided to "run and fight" for the highest office in the country at the age of 57.
Will Sigmar Gabriel's comments weaken Merkel?
We have always said that it is unthinkable to take one million people into Germany every year
During his four-year term as her deputy Gabriel was able to push key SPD policies into law, including Germany's first minimum wage requirement and an overhaul of its pension system.
"The question however is whether or not his close connection to Merkel will make him appear as one and the same," said one commentator.
Recent poll numbers suggest he might even make it easier for Mrs Merkel to win another term.
Leader of SPD party Mr Gabriel is the junior coalition partner in the German government
He is behind her in the popularity stakes and it is known he has many opponents within his own party who believe him too bland to seize the imagination of voters.
Martin Schulz, who formerly served as president of the European Parliament, was expected to run instead but he is expected to become foreign minister when the post falls vacant next month.
A new poll by German broadcaster ARD shows Mrs Merkel set to grab 37 percent of the vote versus the SPD's 20 percent.
Germans are becoming increasingly worried about the refugee crisis
Mr Gabriel will have to appeal to the ordinary voter not to drift into the embrace of the hard-right
In Gabriel's favour is the increasingly incendiary issue of refugees and terror attacks. He blasted Mrs Merkel's party recently for "underestimating the challenges of integrating refugees", adding that "we have always said that it is unthinkable to take one million people into Germany every year."
In March last year he targeted Donald Trump and European right-wing leaders, saying that "all these right-wing populists are not only a threat to peace and social cohesion, but also to economic development".
Appealing to the ordinary voter not to drift into the embrace of the hard-right, anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party ahead of the election will probably be his greatest campaign challenge.
Gabriel is the longest serving SPD leader since former Chancellor Willy Brandt. In the summer of 2015 while visiting the Auschwitz concentration camp, he revealed his father was a staunch Nazi and a Holocaust denier - twin facts which inspired him to become a Social Democrat.