According to opinion polls, if Germans could choose their next President, they would overwhelmingly elect a former East German dissident this week and reject Chancellor Angela Merkel's hand-picked candidate for head of state.
But the embattled Ms. Merkel, who has been caught in a downward spiral in the polls, is expected to see her man Christian Wulff move in to Berlin's Bellevue Palace after a special representative body casts its ballots Wednesday.
Her supporters hope a victory by Mr. Wulff, an affable but relatively colourless conservative state leader over the freedom-fighting pastor Joachim Gauck, will mark a turning point for Ms. Merkel, if only by ending an embarrassing campaign.
ADVERTISEMENT
Ms. Merkel, under fire for her hesitant handling of the eurozone crisis and relentless squabbling in her centre-right coalition, tapped Mr. Wulff as her choice to replace Horst Koehler, who resigned abruptly last month.
The former International Monetary Fund chief had faced a firestorm of criticism when he suggested that German troops deployed overseas might also be defending Berlin's economic interests. — AFP