Fabrizio Bensch / ReutersGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel stands in front of her re-election-campaign tour bus in Berlin on Sept. 16, 2013 Europe is quiet. You might not have noticed as European governments maintain a flurry of diplomacy over Syria, but the big discussions over Europe’s future — about how to return to prosperity, save the euro, whether to move into a closer embrace or break away — all these existential questions have been put on hold. This isn’t because Europe’s Read more [...]

BERLIN (MNI) - Five days ahead of Germany's national elections an opinion poll released Tuesday showed Chancellor Angela Merkel center-right CDU/CSU-FDP coalition without majority to continue governing. In the latest survey by pollsters Forsa, combined support for Merkel's center-right CDU/CSU bloc and the free-market orientated FDP stood at 44%, down one point from the previous survey. The other parties currently represented in parliament - the center-left SPD, the ecological Read more [...]

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Free Democratic coalition partners are begging her party for help to ensure their survival in this weekend’s national ballot. FDP leader Philipp Roesler called on backers of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union to split their ballot and give the second vote to his party on Sept. 22. Germans cast two votes: the first for a candidate in their constituency, and the second to determine the share of seats each party gets in the lower house of parliament, the Bundestag. Read more [...]