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.
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voters → face → 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.
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polls → vow → coast
Still, final results underlined the extent of what Merz conceded was a “disaster” in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
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Merz → underline → 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.
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that → fall → 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.
uncertain
talks → drop → hall
A far-right party gains again
Neither state is one of Germany’s political heavyweights.
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state → gain → 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.
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party → tend → 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.
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he → add → speculation
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.
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campaign → emerge → party
That polarization helped squeeze other mainstream parties, including the CDU.
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polarization → help → CDU
A left-leaning three-party coalition under Schwesig would have a majority in the new regional legislature.
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coalition → lean → legislature
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.
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which → reform → 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.
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plans → include → families
The head of the Social Democrats’ group in the national parliament, Matthias Miersch, said it was clear that “we need reforms.”
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we → say → reforms
But he told ARD television that “we must also take people’s concerns seriously.”
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we → tell → concerns
Merz faces more meetings Monday with his party’s leadership.
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Merz → face → 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.
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support → depend → chancellor
However, five state elections are scheduled next year, three of them in April.
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elections → schedule → 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.
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They → include → Merz
“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.
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offer → see → television
“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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Prien → discuss → population
The Aporia
