With two weeks to go before Germany holds an election, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives have unveiled a new set of election posters, depicting Merkel, Merkel, and more Merkel.

Rather than campaigning on the issues highlighted in their election programmes, the Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian sister party the Christian Social Union (CSU) are keeping it simple and hoping to capitalise instead on the popularity of their leader, Germany’s first female chancellor.

(Photo: A new election campaign poster of German Chancellor Merkel is pictured in Berlin, Sept. 14, 2009, Reuters/Fabrizio Bensch)

“The key question is whether Angela Merkel, who has intelligently guided Germany throughout the crisis, should continue to govern,” said Ronald Pofalla, general secretary of the CDU, at a press conference in Berlin.

“With the new posters, we want to make clear to people that they will only get Merkel again as a chancellor if they vote for the CDU.”

The posters show only Merkel, smiling benevolently against a minimalist black background, and feature slogans like: “We vote for the Chancellor” or “We vote for confidence”.

The latest posters are emblematic of the conservatives’ general campaign, which has focused less on hard-hitting issues such as tax cuts and atomic energy than on popular personalities like Merkel and the Economy Minister Karl Theodor zu Guttenberg.

On previous posters, Guttenberg and other well-known conservative politicians were shown against a blurry background, alongside vague slogans such as “economy with reason”, “strong families” and “good education”.

The posters contrast with those of other parties, which make strong statements on specific policies. A poster for the Social Democrats (SPD), the conservatives’ main challenger, shows an anonymous young woman and reads “atomic energy was yesterday, clean energy is the future, and that is why I am voting SPD”.

 With the election looming, the question is whether voters will let the conservatives get away with their refusal to engage on the issues and failure to offer a new vision for the future of Europe’s largest economy.

Analysts said Merkel did worse than her SPD challenger Frank-Walter Steinmeier in a television debate on Sunday — partly because she preferred to echo the vague slogans of her campaign rather than spell out what she plans to do if she is re-elected.

Is she smart to steer clear of controversy and rely on her popularity to win a second term, or could the strategy backfire on Sept. 27 as it did in the TV debate?

(Additional Reporting by Wolfgang Kerler)

By Dina Kyriakidou

Once the most popular politician in Greece, Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis
has seen his ratings decline, hit by a wave of scandals, party rebels and the world economic crisis.

As little as a year ago, he managed to turn his political fortunes around, winning elections after deadly forest fires, a feat admired by friends and foes alike.

His razor thin majority forebode political trouble ahead. But since September
he has suffered several major blows - losing two ministers suspected of
wrongful dealings, having to sack rebel deputies and dealing with a flurry
of protests over his handling of the economy.

“Lately, Mr Karamanlis appears to be losing power and takes no initiative to act. The political hegemony he has enjoyed since 2004, is now directly
challenged,” wrote commentator Antonis Karakousis in the major Athens daily Ta Nea.  ”The government appears to be at the mercy of events.”

Foreign diplomats in Athens say Karamanlis must act quickly to end feuds among his top ministers and take charge of his party before more damage is done. “I have seen him do none of that,” one European ambassador said.

Karamanlis’s style of the serious, somewhat laconic and removed leader has
served him well so far but may not be what’s needed when his voters are
facing a harsh economic reality and the socialist opposition is for the
first time in years ahead in opinion polls, political analysts say.

Although still seen as a better leader than his rival, Socialist party leader
George Papandreou, a recent poll showed 62 percent of those asked said their opinion of Karamanlis had worsened.

A wave of scandals has tarnished his image as the man who came in to fight
corruption and even deputies from his ruling New Democracy party have accused his
ministers of being insensitive to people’s hardships.

In September he publicly backed two ministers suspected of wrongdoing -
including his closest aide Theodoros Roussopoulos - but was forced to accept their resignations soon after, bowing to political pressure.

When party rebel Petros Tatoulis ignored warnings to keep quiet he was expelled from the party last week, bringing the New Democracy deputies down to 151 in the 300-seat house.

“The prime minister is in a personal and political dead end. But he has no right to lead the country to a dead end as well,” Tatoulis wrote on his blog  the sacking.

This was a far cry from the admiration Karamanlis had long enjoyed, mainly
for turning the economy around. With the world economic downturn reaching Greece and his finance minister criticised for a series of misfires, that advantage appears to be slipping.

It would take just one more party rebel to bring the government down and polls indicate no party can rule alone if elections were held now - an ominous prospect for Greece during a world crisis.

So far, Karamanlis has made few appearances and spoken little on what most Greeks want to hear most - measures to relieve economic hardship. Political observers say they are keen to see whether he will overcome his own political instincts to wait things out, take the centre stage and act before he is forced to new elections.