‘Final spurt, olééé’

With two days left before general elections, Tageszeitung sums up the main issues at stake in the vote with a single cartoon.
Sitting on a cloud, Angela Merkel remains threatened by revelations on NSA espionage, which was conducted in close collaboration with German authorities. Her social democratic rival, Peer Steinbrück, is still holding up the finger which has boosted his position in the polls.

The yellow plane representing the FDP liberals is heading for a crash landing, like the one the party encountered in recent Bavarian elections, in which the FDP scored just 3 per cent of the vote and lost the right to take seats in the region’s parliament. The party is now asking Christian-democratic voters for their support.

In the forefront of the cartoon, Jürgen Trittin, one of the two Green candidates, is whipping himself now that he has been called to account for remarks made 32 years ago to the effect that pedophilia should largely be legalised. His party, which was on track for the best ever score in its history, has slid down the polls in the wake of this controversy. Finally, emerging from the manhole, the left-wing Die Linke candidate, Gregor Gysi, remains on the margins of the campaign.