here in germany this election is of course about who's going to win but it's also about who's leaving angela merkel became chancellor in 2005. 

16 years on her time as leader is almost complete she's involved in the campaign but she's not a contender and the new chancellor will inevitably impact germany's positions on a range of vital issues from the direction of the eu to global trade to climate change my colleague katya adler puts it this way the thing is about these german elections is they matter not just inside the country but outside as well this is all about change you thought german politics might be predictable and boring absolutely not well let's start with the main players and first of all the man angela merkel would like to be her replacement this is amin lachet he's already leader of angela merkel's christian democratic union the cdu it's right of center it's sister party in bavaria's called the csu.

And mr lachette had been favorite but it's not going to plan his polling was already wobbling when this happened as germany's president addressed the devastating floods in july mr lachette was seen laughing that he's leader of one of the worst hit regions made it worse but there's more to his problems than just that though deutsche bella tells us in this profile throughout his campaign he's come across as vague what many wondered does the candidate really stand for well in the latest tv debate mr lachette tried to address that in suzanne the cohesion of europe in these difficult times a climate neutral industry and strong economy.

And above all a clear cause for national security that's the pitch but the polls are offering little comfort look at what's happened first of all this is the result of the 2017 election the cdu csu sometimes called the union reached 35 percent that was actually its worst result in 70 years but it was still top then his polling from july of this year the csu cdu are on 29 percent now look at the latest polling well mr lechette and the cdu has been on the slide and remarkably having been third in july the spd the social democrats now find themselves in the lead and the sbd's leader is this man olaf schultz he's the current finance minister that's because germany's government at the moment is a grand coalition between the two main parties one german political scientist says of him he's rational stable almost boring this makes him very similar to mrs merkel that's right in their different ways both candidates want voters to see them as bringing more of what merkel offered indeed mr schultz seems very happy to encourage this comparison in this magazine photo he even deployed merkel's trademark diamond hand position now let's be clear they are of course not one and the same mr schultz is center-left mrs merkel is center-right they're different politicians from different parties and this is olaf schultz's pitch.

GERMANY ELECTIONS

 I will immediately bring in a minimum wage of 12 euros ensure stable pensions and ensure that within the first year of government we will have the structure in place to build a renewable energy industry with good jobs that are climate neutral now mr schultz and mr lechette are most likely to replace angela merkel but there is one other candidate who has a chance this is annelina berbock she's leader of the green party and this is her message i stand for a new start that would no longer do climate protection halfway policies that finally bring children and families to the centre and a human rights-led foreign policy in the heart of europe now after briefly leading the polls the greens are now back in third and here's the polling from last week again we've talked about the cdu csu and the social democrats and the greens but also nope the far right afd the far lefty linker and liberal conservatives the fdp now no one's going to work with the afd but all of the others matter because german governments are always coalitions this is how the system works are you ready okay here we go germans cast two votes one for a local mp one for a political party at least 598 members are elected by these two votes then half of the bundestag is made up of those local mps half were elected from party lists based on the percentage of the overall vote that the parties received then the bundestag is set and coalition talks begin coalitions have all sorts of funny names in germany traffic lights jamaica kiwi they all refer to the different colors of the different parties and eventually a coalition will emerge that has over 50 percent of mps it's that coalition that chooses the chancellor now that process can take a while last time.

 It took five months but when the coalition is settled we will then see germany's approach to the eu to climate change to global trade joe biden acknowledged this global role when bidding farewell to angela merkel thank you for speaking out for what is right and for never failing to defend human dignity i want to thank you for your continued support for the long-standing goal of europe whole free and at peace it is the nature of all elections that foreign policy takes a back seat but behind the urgency of domestic politics a great unresolved question remains what kind of global power does germany want to be that's why germany's next step matters for all of us you .

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