Merkel’s bloc steps up German election fight amid poll sag

By GEIR MOULSON
Associated Press

BERLIN (AP) — Chancellor Angela Merkel’s would-be successor is pledging to “fight with everything that I can” for victory in Germany’s Sept. 26 election. Merkel’s center-right bloc kicked off its official campaign on Saturday amid a worrying sag in its poll ratings. The German leader spoke at a campaign rally with Armin Laschet, the state governor who is running to succeed her.. They appealed to voters to extend their Christian Democratic Union party’s long run in the chancellery. Recent polls have shown the Union bloc comprising the CDU and its Bavarian sister party only a few points ahead of the center-left Social Democrats and the environmentalist Greens. Laschet doesn’t appear so far to have inspired voters.