Morning Briefing Plus: Netflix und chillen? Schön wär’s

Germany is watching Sachsen-Anhalt this Sunday as the campaign for the upcoming elections continues. The AfD's top candidate, Ulrich Siegmund, is being celebrated like a pop star, while incumbent Sven Schulze of the CDU is polling around half as many voters. This is not just a name recognition issue. In Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, where a new Landtag is being elected on September 20th, AfD candidate Leif-Erik Holm is drawing around 30% of the votes, without the same media backing.

A surprising insight from this late summer election campaign: it's not the person who draws the party, but the party that draws the person. In the Union, it seems the reverse is true: the person drags the party down. Friedrich Merz last visited Sachsen-Anhalt only twice to support Schulze. In the CDU, Chancellor is said to be limiting his appearances to a minimum and not making any stops at market squares. There's a reason for this: in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, he was greeted with applause this week.