Merkel endorses conservative candidate hours before German election

Outgoing German Chancellow Angela Merkel has endorsed her conservatives' candidate to replace her a day before the country's electorate paves the way for a new government.
"Tomorrow is about Germany remaining stable," Merkel said Saturday at a rally for Laschet in his hometown of Aachen.
She said Laschet's tenure as premier of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia had been characterized by "building bridges" and that he had shown in his entire political life that he stood for solidarity, not only theoretically, "but with passion and heart."
Merkel is leaving office after 16 years in power. The conservative CDU-CSU bloc is trailing the centre-left SPD in the most recent polls by only a few percentage points.