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German Chancellor Angela Merkel at an election campaign event of the Christian Democratic Union for Sunday’s election. The outcome of the election is being closely watched in Greece

Over to Greece now, where the German election over the weekend will be closely watched amid mounting anticipation the outcome will likely affect Athens’ bid for debt relief. Helena Smith reports.

The last time Germany went to the polls in 2013, Greece dominated the agenda. Greece’s epic struggle to remain in the eurozone, its dependency on bailout funds and the saga of enforcing often draconian reforms, electrified public debate.

This time even the rightwing, anti-euro Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) party isn’t bothering much about Greece. But the election is being closely followed in Athens where the governing Syriza party is openly backing the leftwing Die Linke.

“The party of the German left, Die Linke, has been … the force that in the most difficult moments for our country stood by the Greek people irrespective of political cost,” Syriza said in a statement. “In such critical elections for the future, not only of Germany but the European Union, with the threat of a reinforced far right as never before in Germany, those who demand an end to the pan-European policies of austerity … must be supported.”

There are fears that the result could impact on the country’s ability to achieve a debt write off, and recover economically, if conservative voices among Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats, and the Liberal Free Democrats – the CDU’s likely coalition partner - are strengthened by the vote.

