By Andreas Rinke and Matthias Williams
BERLIN, Sept 21 (Reuters) – Chancellor Friedrich Merz was clinging to power on Monday after his conservative party tumbled to its worst regional election defeat in postwar Germany and members of his coalition clashed over his unpopular reform agenda.
Merz himself described Sunday’s loss in the northeastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania as a “disaster” as his party for the first time missed the 5% threshold for entering a state parliament. This even occurred in a state that was the former stronghold of Merz’s predecessor and party rival, Angela Merkel.
The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) took first place. While it fell well short of a majority, it was the second time the party had topped a state election within a month, which it sees as building momentum towards national power.
Merz’s party also bled votes in a second election in the state of Berlin, which could see the far-left Die Linke party, the descendants of the Communist party that once ran East Germany, take power in a coalition after winning most seats.
GERMAN CHANCELLOR’S FUTURE IN THE BALANCE
Sunday’s results may not prove a knock-out blow for Merz, but his low approval ratings and the AfD’s surge have left his future in the balance.
Several conservative state premiers met on Sunday to take stock after publicly backing Merz in an open letter last week.
“The meeting was not about a revolt or a plot against Chancellor Merz,” one of the participants of the meeting told Reuters.
“However, there was agreement that the Chancellor needs to deliver more following the CDU’s difficult results in the state elections.”
Within minutes of the results coming in on Sunday, Merz in televised remarks vowed to press on with his reform agenda that he says is vital to revive sluggish growth in Europe’s largest economy and keep it globally competitive.
But members of his centre-left coalition partner, the Social Democrats, pushed back. That includes Manuela Schwesig, the popular incumbent state premier of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, who has sharply criticised the federal government’s pension reforms.
Schwesig said she was “very irritated” by Merz’s remarks. “I think more humility is actually called for on the part of the Chancellor,” she told the ARD broadcaster.
The economy has been struggling since the pandemic to regain momentum, with competition from China as well as higher energy prices challenging its export-driven economic model.
Some business leaders urged Merz to stay the course.
“Economic strength is not built by waiting, but by actively shaping the future. We cannot afford to lose momentum now,” said Jochen Hanebeck, the CEO of chipmaker Infineon, in a LinkedIn post.
BITTER PILL FOR GERMANY’S IMMIGRANT COMMUNITIES
The AfD party leads in national opinion polls but has been kept from power by the other main parties’ refusal to work with it, in a policy known as the “firewall” that has been increasingly scrutinised as the AfD gained strength. Its hardline stance on immigration has left some in Germany of migrant background questioning their future.
“The fact that the AfD is in the lead is quite a bitter pill to swallow,” said Yasmin Goudarzi, an educational scientist.
In Berlin, Die Linke topped the polls in a state election for the first time on a campaign to nationalise housing from corporate landlords and put a cap on rents, echoing the rise of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
Merz, who was elected last year on a promise to return Germany to growth, has struggled to win over voters, as a stream of communication missteps served to compound resentment over unpopular pension, tax and healthcare reforms.
Schwesig, sometimes seen as a potential next SPD national leader, is likely to remain in power in her state.
Schwesig said the AfD had won votes by criticising Germany’s support for Ukraine, a message that the Kremlin also capitalised on in comments by its spokesperson on Monday.
The AfD wants to restore ties with Moscow and characterises sanctions on Russia as self-sabotaging, by cutting off access to Russia’s vast cheap energy resources.
Schwesig had at one time supported the Nord Stream pipelines carrying Russian gas through her Baltic Sea coast state into Germany before they were blown up in 2022, but later changed her position.
“The troublemakers who voted for the AfD clearly weren’t paying attention in history class,” said Detlef Spelker, a passerby in Schwerin.
“We’ve been in a similar situation before, almost 100 years ago. Inflation, problems with jobs, nobody had any money. We’ll see what this brings now.”
(Reporting by Andreas Rinke, Matthias Williams, Hakan Ersen; Writing by Matthias WilliamsEditing by Alexandra Hudson)
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