Germany election: Merkel wins TV debate

German Chancellor Angela Merkel (left) and her Social Democrat (SPD) rival Martin Schulz in a TV debate.

Chancellor Angela Merkel appeared to hold her ground in a television debate ahead of German elections, under attack from her Social Democrat (SPD) rival on refugee policy, ties with Turkey and her handling of U.S. President Donald Trump.

Merkel was 14 points ahead of Martin Schulz in opinion polls before the debate. A survey by Infratest Dimap for ARD television showed her overall performance was viewed as more convincing by 55 percent, compared to 35 percent for Schulz.

Three weeks from voting day, center-left contender Schulz went on the offensive from the outset of the 97-minute debate – his only televised duel with Merkel, who looked rattled at times but showed enough authority to win.

Schulz, 61, outfoxed Merkel on ties with Turkey and bounced her into beefing up her rhetoric by vowing to stop Ankara’s bid to join the European Union if he was elected chancellor.

After initially cautioning against pulling the plug on accession talks right now, Merkel returned to the issue of Turkey even when the moderators had moved on to a question about U.S. President Donald Trump’s policy toward North Korea.

“It is clear that Turkey should not become a member of the EU,” she said after Schulz made his pledge to stop Ankara’s accession bid.

“I’ll speak to my (EU) colleagues to see if we can reach a joint position on this so that we can end these accession talks,” Merkel, 63, added in comments likely to worsen already strained ties with Ankara.

In their exchange on Trump and North Korea, Schulz accused the U.S. president of “bringing the world to the brink of crisis with his tweets” and said Germany should work with its European partners, Canada, Mexico and Trump’s domestic U.S. opponents.

Merkel, seeking a fourth term, responded by deploying her credentials as a global stateswoman, saying she had spoken to French President Emmanuel Macron about North Korea on Sunday and would talk to Trump as well as leaders from Russia, China, Japan and South Korea in the coming days.

“I don’t think that one can solve this conflict without the American President,” she said. “But I think one must say in the clearest terms that for us, there can only be a peaceful diplomatic solution.”

VON.