Elections in two German states on Sunday resulted in severe losses for the country's leading Christian Democrats, whose Chancellor Friedrich Merz is facing pressure to keep the far-right Alternative fuer Deutschland (AfD) party at bay. Here are five takeaways from regional elections in the northeastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Germany's capital Berlin. The results mark a major setback for Merz and his CDU party, whose voters have flocked to the AfD, increasingly doubtful the 70-year-old can revive Germany's economy and bring down the cost of living.
Facing the lowest approval ratings for any chancellor since records began, Merz, who himself described the outcome as a "disaster", is under pressure to deliver on his promised reforms as calls mount for him to resign after less than 17 months in the job. To display this content from YouTube, you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement. One of your browser extensions seems to be blocking the video player from loading.
To watch this content, you may need to disable it on this site. While Merz signalled he would stay on and continue with his reform agenda, Sunday's losses raise questions about his position within the CDU, whose result in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania marked its worst in any state election since 1949. Merz's weakened position as the leader of the European Union's largest and most powerful member could undermine unity in the bloc, where far-right parties continue to gain while relations with the United States have significantly cooled and economic pressures have intensified.
The AfD gained significantly in both states and became the strongest party in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, where it more than doubled its result compared with 2021. This is the second time in two weeks that the AfD has captured the biggest share of votes in a German state election, after winning in Saxony-Anhalt earlier this month, boosting its momentum ahead of federal elections due in 2029. Germany: Thousands rally against far-right after AfD victory To display this content from YouTube, you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement.
The AfD, already the strongest party in nationwide polls with 29 percent, has drawn support for its pledges of tough action to deport foreigners with no right to stay in Germany, as well as on returning to cheap Russian energy and promoting more conservative values centred around the traditional family model. Other big parties, however, are shunning coalitions with the AfD under a "firewall" strategy, making it unlikely that the party will govern in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania or in Berlin, where it came in third. As the AfD gains momentum and voters split across more parties, stable majorities are becoming harder to build.
Preliminary results show that a future government in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania would need three parties to function. This splintering will require more willingness to compromise in a country that has traditionally run on two-party governments. A three-way "traffic light" coalition in 2021, the first such tie-up on the federal level, dissolved after less than three years.
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