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It's Election Season in Germany. No Charisma, Please!
德国选举期，别有领袖魅力！
The most popular politician who would like to be chancellor isn't on the ballot. The leading candidate is so boring people compare him to a machine. Instead of "Yes, We Can!" voters are being fired up with promises of "Stability." Germany is having its most important election in a generation but you would never know it. The newspaper Die Welt recently asked in a headline: "Is this the most boring election ever?"
想成为总理的最受欢迎政治家却不在选票上。领先的候选人乏味如机器。相对于“我们可以！”来说，选民们还是对“稳定”的承诺激动不已（选民们更倾向于“稳定”）。但你可能永远不会知道，德国正在进行一代人以来最重要的选举。《世界报》最近在一篇标题文章中发问：“这是有史以来最无聊的选举吗？”
The campaign to replace Chancellor Angela Merkel after 16 years of her dominating German and European politics is the tightest in Germany since 2005, and it just got tighter. The Social Democrats, written off as recently as a month ago, have overtaken Ms. Merkel's conservatives for the first time in years. But the campaign has also revealed a charisma vacuum that is at once typical of postwar German politics and exceptional for just how bland Ms. Merkel’s two most likely successors are. No party is polling more than 25 percent, and for much of the race the candidate the public has preferred was none of the above.
此次大选是接替在德国和欧洲政治上占据主导地位长达16年之久的德国总理安格拉·默克尔，本次大选是自2005年以来最激烈的，且形势越发紧张。就在一个月前还被淘汰的社会民主党，多年来首次超过了默克尔领导的保守派。这场竞选暴露出了一种魅力真空，这既是战后德国政坛的典型特征，也是默克尔两位最有可能的继任者的平淡无奇之处。没有一个政党的支持率超过25%，在竞选的大部分时间里，公众青睐的候选人都不是上述任何一个。
Whoever wins, however, will have the job of shepherding the continent's largest economy, making that person one of Europe's most important leaders, which has left some observers wondering if the charisma deficit will extend to a leadership deficit as well. While the election outcome may be exciting, the two leading candidates are anything but.
然而，无论谁当选，都将肩负起带领欧洲大陆最大经济体的重任，使他成为欧洲最重要的领导人之一。这让一些观察人士怀疑，魅力缺失是否也会延伸到领导力缺失。虽然选举结果可能令人兴奋，但两位领先的候选人一点也不令人兴奋。
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