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6 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 23 FEBRUARY 2025 NEWS JAMES DEBONO jdebono@mediatoday.com.mt Germany goes to the polls in first major Polls indicate that a grand coalition of pro-EU parties is the likely outcome of Germany's election. However, with one in five voters still undecided at the campaign's close, concerns are growing that support for the far right may be underestimated. GERMANY goes to the polls today, and if the surveys prove accurate, the most probable outcome will be a renewed 'grand coalition' between the Social Democrats (SPD) and the Christian Democrats (CDU), with CDU leader Frie- drich Merz expected to be- come Chancellor of the EU's largest economy. Germany was previously gov- erned by a grand coalition led by Angela Merkel between 2013 and 2021, before shifting to the so-called 'traffic light coalition' of Social Democrats, Greens, and Liberals under Olaf Scholz. That coalition collapsed due to disagreements on economic policy amidst a slowdown. But if the numbers fall short after today's election, the 'grand coalition' may have to be extended to include the Greens. All three parties have gov- erned together at the regional or national level. They share support for Ukraine and EU integration but differ on pub- lic spending, immigration, and climate change. They are also formally committed to main- taining a 'firewall' against the far-right AfD. However, the biggest un- certainty remains the AfD, whose support may be under- estimated in the polls, with a fifth of voters still undecided. The far-right party – some of whose branches are classified as 'extremist' by German secu- rity services – advocates large- scale deportations, targeting not only undocumented mi- grants but also legally residing individuals deemed 'non-as- similated.' The AfD has received open support from the Trump ad- ministration and Elon Musk, who hosted the far-right lead- er in a broadcast on the social media platform X. While it re- mains highly unlikely that the AfD will gather enough num- bers to govern on its own, if it emerges as the strongest party, keeping it out of power will be- come a more difficult task for the other parties. Such a result could also em- bolden the more right-leaning faction within the CDU-CSU to break the post-war taboo against collaborating with the far right. Merz has already been accused of breaching this 'firewall' when he secured ap- proval for a five-point plan on migration with AfD votes, sparking national protests and a rebuke from former chancel- lor Angela Merkel. Additionally, a strong AfD performance would reinforce the party's narrative that it is unfairly excluded from power by the political establishment. Another key factor will be which smaller parties surpass the 5% threshold, a develop- ment that could significantly influence post-election coa- lition building. Struggling to meet this threshold are the lib- eral FDP and the newly found- ed BSW, led by Sahra Wagen- knecht. The only party to gain traction in the campaign's final week was the leftist Die Linke, which has seen increased sup- port among younger voters concerned about the rise of the far right.