German Chancellor Merz calls state election a ‘disaster’ for his party but vows to stay on

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has called a local election defeat for his party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), a “disaster” but vowed to remain in post.

In the north-eastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the CDU fell short of a 5% threshold to enter parliament, underperforming against what had already been projected to be the party’s worst ever result in the area.

Far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) was on track to win the most votes in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, but it is unlikely to govern as other parties refuse to work with it.

Meanwhile in Berlin, the ruling CDU was on course to be beaten by Die Linke (The Left).

Merz is under mounting pressure after months of poor approval ratings, and there have been rumours he could be replaced mid-term in a so-called chancellor swap.

Following the results, AfD co-leader Alice Weidel was asked by the BBC how long Merz has left in office, to which she replied, in English, “Pretty soon, he’s going to leave”.

The two local elections took place on Sunday, a fortnight after the CDU saw its vote halved in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, where the AfD won a major victory.

Echoing comments he made after that defeat, Merz told reporters at the party’s Berlin headquarters on Sunday that he would forge ahead with his coalition government’s plans to push through a package of economic, tax and welfare reforms.

“The reforms have to come,” he insisted. “I am taking on this responsibility, because I want to move our country forward”.

“What needs to be done now requires backbone, steadfastness and patience,” Merz said. “I will demonstrate this as CDU party chairman and, above all, as chancellor of our country.”

“I would even go so far as to say that these reforms are the antidote to the authoritarian poison that, with the fascination of authoritarianism, is penetrating ever deeper into our society,” Merz added.

But Weidel argues: “We are the strongest force and have reached the mainstream of the population.”

Some branches of the populist AfD are classed as right-wing extremist by domestic intelligence, a designation it strongly rejects.

But its anti-immigration, German-first, and Russian-friendly agenda has found fertile ground in the country’s former communist east.