Germany looks set to hold its federal election on Sunday Sept. 24, with Chancellor Angela Merkel seeking a fourth term in office and the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party expected to enter the national parliament for the first time, Reuters reports.
Government spokesman Steffen Seibert said on Twitter that the cabinet had suggested that date to the president, who has the final decision but tends to agree with the government’s proposal.
Germany’s Green Party announced Tuesday morning that Cem Özdemir and chairwoman Katrin Göring-Eckardt will lead the party into September’s parliamentary elections. The candidate of the Social Democratic Party will be announced on January 29.
Merkel faces a tougher re-election campaign than previously after allowing more than a million migrants from the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere to enter the country in the last two years.