German election on knife edge as months of coalition wrangling loom

The country faces Dutch-style' political era with main parties neck and neck before Sunday's poll

Germany is braced to enter a new Dutch-style" political era after federal elections on Sunday, as a knife-edge vote points to months of complicated coalition wrangling.

Outgoing chancellor Angela Merkel joined the campaign trail at a rally in the western city of Aachen on Friday night in an attempt to help her designated successor from the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Armin Laschet, close the gap on the centre-left Social Democratic party (SPD).