Angela Merkel's latest election weapon: Posters of herself as a child

Days before Germany votes in national elections, Angela Merkel's Christian Democrat party (CDU) has unveiled a new weapon - a picture of the chancellor as a child.

The party's latest campaign posters feature a photograph of Mrs Merkel as a smiling three-year-old. The slogan reads: “For a Germany where anyone can be anything.”

The poster plays on the fact that Mrs Merkel grew up in communist East Germany, where democracy and free speech were suppressed, yet ended up the democratically elected leader of a reunited Germany.

The photograph shows her standing next to a tree in Templin, the small town where she grew up.

"Whether teacher, engineer, nurse or firefighter, in Germany children can be whatever they want," the CDU tweeted.

But Mrs Merkel’s critics quick to hit out at the poster.

"Every statistic published in the last few years has shown this is not possible precisely because of your policies," a  user named Carsten Ries replied to the tweet.

"It should say For a Germany, where everyone has to become everything!" Enrico Schultes commented on Facebook. "A lot of people have to do three or more jobs just to earn their living expenses."

Despite the criticism, Mrs Merkel is expected to win Sunday’s election comfortably and secure a fourth term as chancellor.

Although the opinion polls have narrowed slightly in the final week, the CDU is still 13 points clear of its closest rivals, the Social Democrats (SPD) of Martin Schulz.

The anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party (AfD), the liberal Free Democrats (FDP) and The Left party are locked in a battle for third place, on around 10 per cent each.

Mrs Merkel was born in Hamburg, in what was then West Germany, but her father, a Protestant minister, moved the family to the communist East when she was three months old.