Election is vote on euro, says Merkel

Chancellor Angela Merkel says that Germany’s election in four days will be a referendum on the euro’s future stability, as she appealed to voters to reward her handling of the debt crisis with a third term.

Merkel, speaking at a rally of her Christian Democratic Union party in the eastern city of Magdeburg, cast the national vote on Sept 22 as a decision between her policy of conditional bailouts for weaker euro countries and what she portrayed as plans by Germany’s opposition to pool the currency bloc’s debt.

“As we stabilise the euro — and that’s one thing you are deciding about on Sunday — there are different approaches,” Merkel told the crowd of several thousand, some of whom held aloft orange “Angie” signs. “We offer aid when we get something in return.”