00:00With just hours left before the election, the parties have been making their final pitch.
00:06Christian Democrat Friedrich Metz, the frontrunner to be Germany's next chancellor,
00:10addressed supporters on Thursday.
00:13The war in Ukraine, which played less of a role than expected during most of the campaign,
00:17has become central again, after the US made overtures to Vladimir Putin.
00:24With Donald Trump's comments on Zelensky in Ukraine, it's become clearer what's happening here.
00:29The trench in the Atlantic is getting deeper.
00:35On Friday, Olaf Scholz addressed a large rally of his SPD party.
00:40He too said Germany should stand with Ukraine,
00:43and was uncharacteristically direct as he spoke about the Trump administration.
00:49A favourite word in American politics is transactional.
00:54And if you translate that, it means,
00:58I only think about myself, and I only do what's useful to me.
01:07The Greens, under their lead candidate Robert Habeck,
01:10seem sure to be in the Bundestag, but not necessarily in power.
01:14Three smaller parties cannot be sure if they'll win any seats in the Bundestag.
01:19If they do, it could make forming a new government harder.
01:22The left party are currently riding high, especially with young voters.
01:26They reject tough measures on migration and military support for Ukraine,
01:30and they want a fairer economy.
01:32Another left-wing party leader, Zara Wagenknecht,
01:35hammered home a programme that melds pacifism and left-wing economic policy
01:40with a hard line on immigration.
01:42The Free Democrats, members of Olaf Scholz's coalition until late last year,
01:48could potentially join a government again if they scrape into Parliament.
01:52Meanwhile, all parties are wondering how much of the vote
01:56will go to the alternative for Germany, AFD,
01:59and how loud will the far-right voice be in the coming four years.
02:05Pollsters say one in five voters have not yet made up their minds
02:09in what could be a very consequential, even historic, election.
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