Update: The situation for Merz's party just went from "disaster" to full Titanic as projections signal the CDU will get just 4.9% of the vote - below the critical threshold required to enter parliament...
This would be the first time the CDU failed to enter state parliament since the founding of the federal republic in 1949.
Merz's approval rating is at a record low...
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German Chancellor Friedrich Merz's political troubles deepened as exit polls put his Christian Democrats on course for their worst-ever result in a state election.
Right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) is set to win most votes in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania while the socialist Left Party has surged to first place in Berlin, according to initial projections.
Local outlet Deutsche Welle adds more color:
In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the AfD is projected to take 37%, edging out the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) on 35.5%.
The center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the party of Chancellor Friedrich Merz, is projected to slump to 5.5%, barely above the threshold to enter the state parliament.
In Berlin, the CDU suffered another alarming setback, polling at just 20% against 24.8% for the far-left anti-capitalist 'Left Party'.
AfD is third on 15.7%, up 6.9 points.
Sunday’s showing could mark the first time the CDU is expelled from a state parliament since the founding of the federal republic in 1949.
“We can’t sugarcoat it, it was a disaster,” Merz told reporters in Berlin in a statement directly after exit polls were released, but offered no sign that he would step down.
He gathered senior CDU officials to party headquarters, where he sought to gauge their support for his leadership.
Lars Klingbeil, the SPD co-leader and vice chancellor, said the government needs to take stock and ask why voters voiced such uncertainty about policymaking in Berlin, where Merz’s coalition has struggled to sell its plan to overhaul the pension system and take on more debt to boost spending on defense and infrastructure.
“I take this very seriously,” Klingbeil told ARD.
“I also believe that we need to look at results like these with humility and ask ourselves: What can we do differently? What can we do better?”
The AfD party’s national co-leader, Alice Weidel, said Merz was the “wrong chancellor” and doing damage to his party.
“He’s dragging the CDU down with him,” Weidel told ARD.
“The CDU must ask itself — especially now — whether it wants to continue with this chancellor and with these left-wing policies. Because it won’t be able to carry on like this.”
AfD wrote on X:
"Chancellor Merz is not stepping down after the CDU disaster - no, instead he's telling the citizens that there won't be any 'back to the good old days'.
But, Mr. Merz. There will be. With the Alternative for Germany, which aligns its policies exclusively with the interests of its own citizens—and which will replace the CDU. Everywhere,"
"I am taking over this responsibility because I want to bring our country forward," Merz said.
Yet deindustrialization is really what's on the ballot, as Merz and the German political establishment have failed the nation.
Germany's political landscape is fragmenting in three directions at once: the CDU in the center, the AfD on the right, and the Left Party on the far left. No single coalition appears to be taking shape. This comes weeks after AfD's victory in Saxony-Anhalt. The results intensify pressure on Merz only 16 months into his chancellorship.
Andrzej Szczepaniak, a senior European economist and executive director at Nomura International in London, wrote in recent weeks that Europe has entered an 18-month election cycle that could accelerate the continent's shift toward populism, with high-profile elections already underway.
Szczepaniak emphasized the "seeds of political change" are already here, indicating that "politics in Europe is lurching towards more populism."
Read the full report here.
The political shift extends well beyond Europe. In Brazil, foreign capital is beginning to flow in as right-wing challenger Flávio Bolsonaro leads socialist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, suggesting investors are positioning for a potential change in economic policy.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/germanys-merz-rocked-election-disaster-surging-afd-momentum-closes-second-state-victory
