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Peer Steinbrück, 65, who served alongside Ms Merkel during the onset of the global financial crisis, said the chancellor had used Germany’s economic strength to act as Europe’s task master in the eyes of its neighbours.
Mr Steinbrück favours sweeping financial regulation, splitting investment from retail banking – a move that would hit Deutsche Bank, the country’s only real global player.
The SPD nominee faces an uphill battle to defeat Ms Merkel who remains popular in Germany thanks to near record-low unemployment and her non-confrontational political style
But though Ms Merkel seems likely to remain chancellor, she risks losing her present coalition partner, the centre-right FDP, which is trailing badly in the polls. Many pollsters therefore expect a return of the grand coalition, a political experiment that the cautious German electorate embraced during the financial crisis as it led to consensus-driven decision making.
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