BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel has stolen a page from the opposition's campaign playbook ahead of the September election and is now calling for rent controls, a sign she is in a tight fight and does not want to risk upsetting Germany's 40 million renters.
Merkel is well ahead of the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) in opinion polls for the September 22 election. But concern that the centre-left could still win enough to form a coalition without her Christian Democrats (CDU) has pushed Merkel into unusual territory - diving into what is normally a local issue.
