Merkel rejects deputy’s claim he is continuity candidate for chancellor

Outgoing leader wades into election fray as Olaf Scholz says his party is more likely to uphold Merkel's legacy

Angela Merkel has waded into the fray of Germany's election campaign by dismissing her centre-left vice-chancellor's attempt to model himself as her continuity candidate, as her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) tries to revive its flagging fortunes with warnings of chaos" under a leftwing coalition government.

The intervention comes as the Social Democratic party (SPD) candidate for chancellor, Olaf Scholz, Merkel's deputy in her fourth and final cabinet, is doing an increasingly effective job of convincing voters he is more likely to continue the chancellor's centrist and rational legacy than the candidate representing her own party.