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Germany's major parties have been signing off their candidates and manifestos ahead of a federal election in six weeks.
The vote was called after the ruling three-party coalition fell apart late last year.
It was all smiles at the Social Democrat party conference in Berlin with the current German leader, Olaf Scholz, confirmed as SPD candidate for chancellor.
Only five delegates out of nearly 600 failed to back him.
German leader Olaf Scholz has his work cut out as he faces the likes of AfD leader Alice Weidel at the polls. /Liesa Johannssen and Matthias Rietschel/Reuters
The chancellor said Germany was at a crossroads and they would implement tax and investment plans to help all sections of German society. He also said the far-right posed a threat to the institutions of German government.
"Others want to demolish our democracy with their chainsaws. We are fighting to preserve and renew the successful 'Made in Germany' brand for the ordinary people in our country. So we fight," Scholz said.
There was a standing ovation for the chancellor at the conference, but if Scholz and the SPD have ambitions of returning to governance after this election, they will have to overcome one heck of a gap in the polls.
They are currently third in the polls at 16 percent - that's 14 points behind the Conservatives at 30 percent and six points behind the second-placed AfD at 22 percent.
There were protests outside the Alternative for Germany party congress in Riesa. /Matthias Rietschel/Reuters
Health Minister Karl Lauterbach told CGTN there's still time to turn things around.
He said: "I think the election campaign is just starting and the issues we basically put forward are important issues for the general population - payable rent, long term care, health care, retirement benefits, security, internal security, external security.
"In the next couple of weeks, the message will come forward. And the election is much more open than many people believe."
It seemed fairly festive in Berlin. They were more fraught in Saxony, where the far-right AfD was approving its candidate for chancellor. Protesters delayed delegates en route to the venue.
Once things got up and running, Alice Weidel, who tech Billionaire Elon Musk publicly backs, was confirmed as AfD candidate.
She left no ambiguity over what her migration policy would be if elected.
"Close the borders completely and turn back anyone entering the country illegally and without papers," she said. "And a very clear message to the whole world: the German borders are closed. Dear friends, they are closed."
In Hamburg, the Christian Democratic Union rubber stamped Friedrich Merz as its candidate for the conservative bloc.
He lashed out at Scholz's recent rebuke of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's coveting of neighboring territories.
"I honestly cannot imagine that the American president is in any way impressed by a four-minute press conference or a four-minute press statement by the German chancellor on Greenland, the Gulf of Mexico or the Panama Canal.
"Moralizing from Germany has never made an impression in America and has usually had the opposite effect."
Merz believes he can provide the right balance between Europe and the U.S.
The Conservatives are running on a manifesto of keeping Germany's strict rules on government borrowing and lowering income and sales taxes.
With the other main parties Greens, Free Democrats and BSW also approving its candidates we are set for a six-week dash to the Bundestag and the Chancellor's office.