German People Deliver Another Election Rejection of Chancellor Merz

Posted originally on the CTH on September 20, 2026 | sundance |

Another regional German election and another massive defeat for Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

Merz’s CDU party is below the 5% threshold in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, meaning they are totally wiped out from the region. Merz has described the Sunday result as a “disaster”, with the AfD party again emerging victorious.

The Alternative for Germany (AfD) leads in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern at 38%, marking consecutive historic gains, while co-leader Alice Weidel calls it the new people’s party.

(VIA MSM) – German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party is facing a dire set of results in state elections, exit polls show, and is set to be squeezed both by the surging far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and parties on the left.

The AfD is projected to win the north-eastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern at 38%, the exit poll from Germany’s public broadcaster shows, just two weeks after the party had its best result yet in Saxony-Anhalt.

Merz’s CDU is currently below the 5% threshold to gain representation in parliament, piling pressure on his beleaguered leadership.

Merz described the results in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern as a “disaster” in a speech after the exit polls were released.

“We cannot sugar coat the result in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern,” Merz said. “It is a disaster. The CDU fought hard, but in the end it was the CDU that got crushed in the polarization between the [Social Democratic Party] and the AfD.”

The chancellor remained defiant as he spoke of the need for reform to address Germany’s economic issues and deepening divisions. “The answer cannot be to go back to the good old days,” he said.

In the other election on Sunday, the left-wing Die Linke party leads in Berlin at 26%, followed by the CDU and the Greens, according to the exit polls.

There were audible groans inside the CDU watch party in Berlin as the results were read out for both regions.

[…] AfD co-leader Alice Weidel was gleeful as the exit polls were announced, telling CNN that her party is “clearly the new people’s party in Germany.”

“We have overtaken the CDU, and people want a change of policy,” Weidel said. She described Merz as “strongly damaged,” adding: “I believe the CDU cannot continue with Friedrich Merz, with a weak chancellor.”

In Berlin, the AfD is outlooked to come in fourth with 13.5%. While not comparable to its gains elsewhere, the result is a notable sign of how the far right is finding support even in the cosmopolitan capital; in Berlin’s last state parliament election in 2023, the AfD took 9.1% of the vote.

Sunday’s elections come at a critical moment for Merz, arriving just two weeks after the AfD delivered a crushing blow to his party with a historic state election victory in Saxony-Anhalt, where it took 44% of the vote. (more)