Two weeks after the patriotic Alternative for Germany (AfD) party earned landslide results in the state of Saxony-Anhalt at 43.8%, the AfD again is pulling in record results today in the Baltic state of Mecklenburg-West Pommerania and even the leftist bastion of Berlin. As the ruling Christian Democrats plunge to historic lows, the future of former BlackRock manager Friedrich Merz as chancellor is in doubt.
“I will halve the vote for the AfD,” Friedrich Merz had vowed before becoming Chancellor 2025. After forming a coalition with the Social Democrats, breaking all his election promises and even changing the German constitution to allow record deficit spending, Merz is now the most unpopular Chancellor Germany has ever had.
Now, Merz has halved the Christian Democrats’ national results and may even lose representation in a state parliament for the first time since WWII.
In a first for a German state election, Chancellor Friedrich Merz gave a statement shortly after 6 pm local time (12 pm Eastern). Merz called the results “a disaster” for which he “accepts responsibility” but fell short of resigning, blaming “extremist parties on the left and right” for his failures.
AfD Chair Alice Weidel said the AfD will try and form a government coalition in Mecklenburg-West Pommerania: “It is our mission as a politician to put the interests of our country first and to talk to everyone.” She called the landslide results for the AfD a result of Friedrich Merz’s “Firewall” policy forbidding the Christian Dems talks with the populist AfD.
In the Baltic coastal state of Mecklenburg-West Pommerania, the AfD is currently pegged in first place at 37.3%, again more than doubling their vote (+20.6%), followed by the traditionally strong Social Democrats at 35.5% (-4.1%). Friedrich Merz’s CDU is currently projected to win 5.3% of the vote, more than halving their 2021 result (-8.0%). That would make it the smallest CDU caucus in a German state parliament since 1945.
If the Christian Democrats lose any more, they could fall under the 5% threshold and not be represented in parliament in Mecklenburg-West Pommerania at all.
Turnout in Mecklenburg-West Pommerania was 79%, as East German voters expressed their dissatisfaction with the ruling parties.
In the traditionally far-left capital of Berlin, the AfD also scored record results of 15.7%, up 6.6% over 2021. The ruling Christian Democrats lose 8.2% in Berlin to 20.0% in the first projections.
The Left party, the successors to the former East German Communist party, lead the pack in Berlin at 24.9% (+12,7%). The Left conducted a campaign targeting migrants and Muslims, with several candidates speaking Arabic and talking about Palestine more than Berlin.
That means 37 years after the fall of the deadly Berlin Wall, the German capital may be ruled by the party that had people shot at the Berlin Wall.
More to follow
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