Merz Clings On: 'Reforms Are the Antidote to the Authoritarian Poison'
Germany’s chancellor answered his party’s worst weekend since 1949 with defiance: the results are “a disaster”, but he will stay and govern — “reforms are the antidote to the authoritarian poison that is penetrating ever deeper into our society.” His vice-chancellor signalled a change of course; the Bundesbank’s president voiced alarm; and the AfD’s leader named her long-term goal aloud: coalition talks with a broken CDU.
Mr Merz’s survival formula — reforms as antidote — asks voters to swallow more of the medicine they have just spat out, and the SPD’s public appetite for a “change of course” converts the coalition from partnership to hostage arrangement: neither partner can afford the election that separation triggers, so Germany gets government by mutual dread. The economist’s warning frames the trap exactly — if every red line holds, “political paralysis will become entrenched” and the AfD’s 2029 odds rise on schedule; if the firewall bends, the postwar settlement goes with it. Europe’s fiscal anchor, Ukraine’s second arsenal and the euro’s guarantor now runs on a chancellor at 13% approval. Watch the pension-reform fight Mr Klingbeil named — it is the coalition’s designated breaking point.