An economic slump, an immigration crisis and the lifting of a security blanket provided for decades by the U.S. are issues on the minds of German voters. The far-right AfD is polling in second place.

Germany’s European neighbours are still friends and partners, even if political trends in France, Austria and parts of central and eastern Europe give rise to concern in Berlin. But far more worrying is the antagonism of Vladimir Putin’s Russia and,

Germans are going to the polls on Sunday for national elections. Opinion polls suggest the outcome will be a new chancellor and, likely, a new governing coalition.

Opinion polls suggest that the incumbent coalition between the social democrats and greens will lose badly. It is also likely that a far-right party will finish in second for the first time since the Nazis seized power.

Germany's mainstream political parties lost support while the far-right AfD gained ground in one of the last polls published before the election on Sunday, pointing to likely tricky coalition building that could drag on for months.