Germany's Merz struggles to stay on track after humiliating regional
election defeat
[September 21, 2026]
By GEIR MOULSON
BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Friedrich Merz faced a struggle to
stabilize his position and keep his agenda on track Monday after voters
inflicted two more defeats on his party, ejecting it from a state
legislature for the first time in its eight-decade history.
The unpopular Merz vowed to stay on and push through reforms to Germany,
Europe's biggest economy, minutes after polls closed Sunday in regional
elections in Berlin and in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, a largely
rural eastern region on the Baltic Sea coast.
Still, final results underlined the extent of what Merz conceded was a
“disaster” in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. His center-right Christian
Democratic Union fell just below the 5% of the vote needed to keep seats
in the regional parliament, the first time that has happened in 77 years
of modern Germany's federal republic, after losing more than half its
support.
The CDU also dropped to second place in Berlin behind the hard-left Left
Party, which is in pole position to lead the next city government —
though Merz's party could, depending on how coalition talks go, still
retain city hall.
A far-right party gains again
Neither state is one of Germany's political heavyweights. The CDU's 2023
win in Berlin was its only one in the past 25 years in the capital,
which has tended to lean left, and the party was already weak in
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
But the manner of its defeat in the latter in particular adds to the
headwinds Merz faces after a stinging defeat by the far-right
Alternative for Germany two weeks ago in Saxony-Anhalt, another region
in the formerly communist east, damaged his authority and set off
speculation that he might be replaced.
Alternative for Germany, or AfD, emerged as the strongest party in
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, but the center-left Social Democrats —
the junior party in Merz's national governing coalition — were fairly
close behind after a campaign focused squarely on the state governor,
Manuela Schwesig, as a bulwark against the far-right party. That
polarization helped squeeze other mainstream parties, including the CDU.
A left-leaning three-party coalition under Schwesig would have a
majority in the new regional legislature.
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German Chancellor Friedrich Merz speaks to media at the Christian
Democratic Union party headquarters in Berlin, Germany, Sunday,
Sept. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
Questions over how Germany should be reformed
Schwesig and others in the governing parties have cast doubt on
aspects of the federal government's reform agenda, which is meant to
bolster a chronically sluggish economy. The reform plans include a
potentially painful overhaul of the creaking pension system, a
reduction of Germany’s stifling bureaucracy and cuts to income tax
for low- and middle-income families.
The head of the Social Democrats' group in the national parliament,
Matthias Miersch, said it was clear that “we need reforms.” But he
told ARD television that “we must also take people's concerns
seriously.”
Merz faces more meetings Monday with his party's leadership. Much
will depend on the CDU's influential regional leaders; the party's
eight state governors last week backed the chancellor, though
questions remained about how wholehearted their support was.
There are at least no more electoral tests this year. However, five
state elections are scheduled next year, three of them in April.
They include one in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populous
state, currently led by a prominent CDU figure often cited as a
possible successor to Merz, Hendrik Wüst. None of the five elections
is in the east, where AfD is strongest.
“I don't see that swapping out a leadership figure would really
bring a change,” Education Minister Karin Prien, who is also a
deputy CDU leader, told Phoenix television, adding that she doesn't
see “another personnel offer” coming.
“So we must now discuss with one another — together with the
chancellor as a government, and on the other hand as a party — how
we win more acceptance and more credibility among the population,”
Prien said.
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