Working poor of Germany's rust belt desperate for change

Bochum

HOSPITAL cleaner Petra Vogel is exactly the kind of voter in the sights of Social Democrats determined to unseat German Chancellor Angela Merkel at legislative elections in September.

The slightly built 60-year-old, with a touch of green mascara around the eyes, has spent half her life working in the clinic in her hometown of Bochum, in Germany's most populous state North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW).