Conservative politician,49, in trouble over latex photoshoot

Posters of Angela Merkel's cleavage spice up German election campaign
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Billboards of Chancellor Angela Merkel sporting a very revealing low-cut dress have pepped up a German election campaign that has so far struggled to grab public attention.

The election placards have been put up by Vera Lengsfeld, a member of Mrs Merkel's own conservative CDU party, who is running in a left-wing district of Berlin for a seat in parliament in the September 27 poll.



The billboards show photographs of each woman in an evening dress showing plenty of cleavage with the slogan: "We have more to offer" emblazoned over the chancellor's breasts.

Mrs Lengsfeld, a former East German dissident, said she had not cleared the picture beforehand with Mrs Merkel, 55, telling rolling news channel N24: "The chancellor could never have allowed me to do this, otherwise everyone would have wanted to do it."

She added: "I find it amazing how little humour some people have shown over this placard. People always complain that election posters are boring and then as soon as someone does something different, people get annoyed," she said.

Mrs Lengsfeld, 57, said she had 17,000 visitors on her election blog since she shot into the public eye and added: "If only a tenth of them also look at the content of my policies, then I will have reached many more people than I could have done with classic street canvassing."

She will have her work cut out, however, to transform the limelight into success at the ballot box against a popular Green party veteran.

The famous photo of Mrs Merkel's cleavage, taken at the opening of the Oslo Opera House in April 2008, prompted headlines such as "Merkel's Weapons of Mass Destruction" "Deutschland boober alles" in British tabloids.

On Mrs Lengsfeld's election blog, opinion was sharply divided.

"Alex" wrote: "Fantastic idea. Witty, cheeky and funny. I personally never thought I would see such a daring billboard in an otherwise very respectable and serious German election campaign."

But "Lena" had a completely different view, saying: "This billboard is embarrassing and shameful ... how deeply sad that a women has to attract attention with her breasts because she is incapable of clever words and thoughts."

Zeit Online: Vera Lengsfeld will für die CDU in den Bundestag - dabei sollen ihr das eigene Dekolleté und das von Angela Merkel helfen

Controversy Over Bare Buttocks
German Green Party Defends 'Racist' Campaign Poster

A German campaign poster featuring the buttocks of a black woman is stirring controversy. Some local people in the western town of Kaarst, where the Green Party put up the poster, have called it racist and tasteless.

A German election campaign poster featuring the naked buttocks of a black woman being squeezed by the hands of a white woman under the slogan "The Only Reason to Vote Black" has provoked accusations of racism.


The Greens election poster in the German town of Kaarst.

The poster put up by the environmental Greens party in the western town of Kaarst contains a play on words: "Black" in German party politics refers to the color colloquially used to describe Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party. Other major parties are described as red, yellow and, of course, green.

The poster is meant to highlight the Greens' support for same-sex partnerships, said the local head of the Greens, Christian Gaumitz, according to the daily Rheinische Post. "We only put up a small number of these posters. The response has been very big, but the majority of people share our understanding of the subject: that it's provocative, but not tasteless."

Locals have complained that the poster is racist and tasteless, according to media reports.