Madame Tussauds Unveils New Wax Figure Of Merkel

Three days before Germans elect a new parliament, Madame Tussauds in Berlin unveiled a new wax figure of Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday (September 19), saying the timing was coincidental.

According to a spokeswoman for the museum, work on the new Merkel figure began in London eight months ago.

The new Merkel figure was unveiled next to an earlier version from 2005 and differences between the two wax chancellors are obvious.

Merkel's much debated hand position in the shape of a diamond has become her trade mark.

For the first time on Thursday, a new German anti-euro party has cleared the 5 percent threshold for entering parliament in an opinion poll, indicating Merkel might be unable to repeat her centre-right coalition after Sunday's election.

The INSA poll for Bild daily released on Thursday put Merkel's conservatives on 38 percent and the FDP on 6 percent, giving a combined total of 44 percent - one percentage point lower than the total for the three left-of-centre parties.

The poll, conducted after last Sunday's state election in Bavaria, gave the eurosceptic Alternative for Germany (AfD) 5 percent, the amount needed to enter the Bundestag lower house.

It put the opposition Social Democrats (SPD) on 28 percent, the Greens 8 percent and the hardline Left 9 percent.

Presented by Adam Justice