The regional elections arrive on the heels of a seismic election in Saxony-Anhalt, where the anti-immigration, pro-Kremlin Alternative for Germany (AfD) scored its highest ever result in a regional poll, threatening the embattled leader’s fragile governing coalition.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is confronting the deepest political crisis of his tenure as voters across Berlin and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania cast ballots in high-stakes regional elections.
Saxony-Anhalt Aftermath and the Far-Right Surge
The AfD fell just short of an absolute majority in Saxony-Anhalt, a small eastern state that gained outsized prominence as AfD eyed power there. Its regional branch is one of several considered a proven right-wing extremist group by Germany’s domestic intelligence agency. Because of Germany’s Nazi past, far-right movements have always come under strong scrutiny, and other major parties have refused to cooperate with AfD in a so-called “firewall.”
After the vote, Ulrich Siegmund, the AfD candidate for governor in Saxony-Anhalt, signaled that the party still isn’t willing to make compromises, insisting that we don’t want to become like the parties that were punished
by breaking pre-election promises. The party’s victory was cheered by far-right parties across Europe.
“deeply shocked” by what he called “the most serious election defeat that the CDU has had for years, for decades.”
Friedrich Merz, German Chancellor
Despite the severe setback, Merz indicated that he’s determined to stay at the helm and said that giving up is not an option for me.
His center-right Christian Democratic Union has watched its standing erode amid public frustration. Merz vowed to weaken AfD before he came to power last year, but instead has seen the party’s support increase. The governing coalition of his Union bloc and the center-left Social Democrats has developed a reputation for squabbling and become deeply unpopular, as has Merz himself.
Berlin and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania at the Ballot Box
Sunday’s elections bring direct electoral tests in two very different German federal states. About 2.5 million people are eligible to vote in the capital Berlin, where the incumbent CDU is vying for first place against the far-left Die Linke, which has called for expropriation of corporate landlords to fight rising housing costs. About 85% of Berlin households rent their homes and advertised rents have nearly doubled since 2014, when the city was still labelled “poor but sexy” by its then mayor, Klaus Wowereit. The AfD is polling strongly in third or fourth place, even in the cosmopolitan capital.
The current mayor, Kai Wegner of the CDU, abandoned his re-election bid in July after getting tangled in contradictions explaining a decision to play tennis while large parts of the German capital were hit by an arson-triggered power blackout last winter. Stefan Evers, Berlin’s chief finance official, replaced him as the candidate but has failed to lift the party’s polling scores.
Meanwhile, nearly 1.3 million voters headed to the polls in the Baltic coast state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, where the situation looks even dicier for Merz. Central to the election is Manuela Schwesig, the popular SPD premier, whose leadership could determine whether the SPD, Greens, and Left Party form a coalition to exclude the far-right.
Chancellor Merz Resists Pressure and Defends Reform Agenda
Personal approval ratings for the chancellor have nosedived to 10%, prompting him to cancel a plan to speak at the UN general assembly in New York because his presence is required in Berlin
after the elections, a government official said. His credibility has been tarnished by broken campaign promises to return Europe’s largest economy to growth and cut the AfD, the biggest opposition party in parliament and number one in opinion polls, down to size.
Even so, Merz has resisted calls to quit and vowed to fight for a signature package of economic and social welfare changes he argues are crucial to Germany’s future. We as a government were elected for four years, I was elected for four years,
he told an industry group. And I want to use these four years to lead the country out of this difficult period.
As polling booths open at 8am local time on Sunday and close at 6pm, Merz and his allies will be watching exit polls on tenterhooks. Merz doubled down on pushing through unpopular reforms to Europe’s largest economy, insisting Monday that we need fundamental reforms in Germany
to secure the future of the country and the opportunities of children and grandchildren.
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