This Sunday, Germans cast their ballots in a widely observed, nationwide election. After a day of demonstrations, Berliners turned out to vote at the numerous polling stations across the capital. RFI's Jan van der Made spoke to some of the electorate who turned out.
This Sunday, 23 February, polling stations opened at 08:00 AM. More than 59 million Germans are eligible to vote. Exit polls are expected soon after polls close at 6:00 PM.
An election worker, clad in a yellow vest, opens the door for incoming and outgoing voters at the polling station in Bülow Street, housed for the occasion in a home for the elderly.
He says there have been "quite some voters" coming in as soon as the station opened. "It's an important election".
Inside the building are two separate stations: no.102 and no.103, serving different areas in the neighbourhood. Voters have to show their identity card to get their ballot and disappear behind one of three polling booths.
Deadly attacks
The centre-right Friedrich Merz is the frontrunner. He has promised a radical shift to the right in an attempt to win back voters from the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD), which opinion polls indicate could win its biggest result in history after a series of deadly attacks blamed on asylum seekers.
If he takes the helm from the incumbent centre-left Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Merz said his party will stand for a "strong voice" in Europe in a time of international turmoil.
For Titus, a tall man with a red cap, is not so sure. He says he's politically "very complex." He voted "left" without specifying for which left-wing party, in order to keep "the (centre-right) CDU out."
He says he's a filmmaker and comes from a "diverse" family. "No AfD as far as I know, but very different opinions.
"But we respect love each other".
Lina is the American wife of another voter. She's from Baltimore, Maryland and thinks that – compared to the US – the election atmosphere in Germany is "rather calm".
She didn't follow her husband inside the polling station but reflected on the global situation: "It's been weeks of turmoil. No one knows what will happen next".
Germany's political crisis was sparked when Scholz's coalition – SPD, Greens and the liberal FDP – collapsed on 6 November, the very day Donald Trump was re-elected as President of the United States.
Scholz's SPD and his coalition partners failed to agree on financial policies.
The SPD is poling at a record low – just over 15 percent according to a poll taken earlier this month – suggesting that Scholz is paying the price for policy gridlock and Germany's abysmal economic performance, aggravated by the Ukraine war and massively inflated energy prices.
Frustration with the leadership fuelled the rise of the AfD, which has been polling at more than 20 percent.
However, chances that the party will rule are slim, as other parties say they will refuse any form of cooperation.
Germany’s pivotal election: rising AfD, struggling left, and Europe’s uncertain future
Immigrants blamed for attacks
The AfD is strongest in Germany's ex-communist east and has capitalised on a series of attacks carried out by asylum seekers.
In December, a car rammed through a crowded Christmas market in the city of Magdenburg, killing six people and wounding hundreds.
A Saudi man was arrested at the scene.
Following the Magdenburg incident, a stabbing spree targeting kindergarten children and another car-ramming attack in Munich were blamed on Afghan immigrants.
And only last Friday, a Syrian man who police said wanted to "kill Jews" was arrested after a Spanish tourist was stabbed in the neck at Berlin's Holocaust memorial.
