meanile, the social democrats are headed in the other direction. let's get more on all of this without correspondent in berlin. damien? >> usually these debates are very similar eyes -- civilized, but this time around the last debate before the elections in three weeks were raucous. angela merkel was on the attack, including their -- accusing their leader there, the chancellor candidate, of not ruling out working together in coalition after the election with the radically left-wing linke party. she was doing this to scare off leftists who might consider voting f them off the green party. she said you might wake up with a far left-wing government. the problem is, he has a reputation as a center rest, current finance minister, not exciting but reliable. to portray him as a scary lefty who might bring a communist regime is not very credible to many voters. this was seen more as a sign of desperation because the conservatives are law -- losing so badly in the polls. until a few weeks ago she wasn't present in the election came previously said she didn'