AfD Takes Mecklenburg as Merz's CDU Crashes Out of a State Parliament
Germany’s far right won its second state this month: the AfD took Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania with 38.3%, while the CDU collapsed to 4.9% — below the threshold, ejected from a state parliament, its worst result since 1949. In Berlin, the Left topped the poll for the first time on a rent-and-nationalisation platform; the AfD ran third even there. “A disaster,” the Chancellor conceded, refusing to resign: “What needs to be done now requires backbone, steadfastness and patience.”
The two results together map Germany’s fragmentation with brutal economy: the east voting far-right by pluralities approaching majorities, the capital voting far-left on housing rage, and the party of Adenauer and Kohl reduced to a rounding error in one and a fifth in the other — the centre not merely shrinking but evacuating in both directions at once. Mr Merz’s survival now rests on the constructive no-confidence rule and his coalition partner’s fear of elections, the weakest form of tenure German politics offers, and his vice-chancellor’s public demand for a change of course reads as the SPD pricing its exit options. For Europe the stakes need no translation: Ukraine’s arsenal, the EU’s fiscal spine and the euro all assume a governing Germany. Watch the Bundestag’s arithmetic and Mr Klingbeil’s calendar — the chancellorship is now a hostage negotiation.