Exit polls indicated that Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s party suffered significant defeats in two German state elections on Sunday. Merz’s centre-right Christian Democratic Union is expected to lose 5.5% of the vote in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, a predominantly rural state in Germany’s erstwhile communist east. That would be its poorest performance there since WWII.
According to an exit poll conducted by the public broadcaster ARD, the CDU is expected to place second in Berlin with 20% of the vote, trailing the Left Party by 24.5%. The Alternative for Germany (AfD) gained substantial ground in Sunday’s regional elections. The vote comes two weeks after the AfD finished just short of an absolute majority in the small eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, giving it the strongest opportunity yet to build the country’s first far-right regional government since World War II.
The AfD’s strong performance in Saxony-Anhalt has further harmed the chancellor’s national reputation, prompting calls from within his own party to replace him during the last fortnight. Although no high-level allies have publicly called for his resignation, several have cautioned against sparking divisive internal personnel fights.
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