Scholz Fails to Land Decisive Blow in German Election Debate

Welcome to the Brussels Edition, Bloomberg’s daily briefing on what matters most in the heart of the European Union.

Olaf Scholz needed to do some real damage to his conservative opponent Friedrich Merz in last night’s debate if he was going to have a chance of salvaging his re-election bid. Instead, he barely moved the needle, and Merz confidently declared partway through that “I assume that we will win the election.” Time is fast running out for Scholz and his SPD party to close the gap to the conservatives that is currently at about 14 percentage points — which would mean nearly doubling current support. Even if Merz remains favored to become Germany’s next chancellor, it’s striking how little he and most other parties have tried to address one of the country’s most pressing issues: an intensifying housing shortage. It’s arguably one of the key sources of social anxiety and weighs on the economy, but discussions of the sticky issue have been almost entirely absent from the campaign and didn’t feature at all in last night’s debate.