German Chancellor Merz's Party Suffers Defeats, Far-Right Gains in State Elections

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz vowed on Monday to keep his ruling coalition together for the sake of Germany's democratic future, following resounding defeats for his party in two state elections.

Merz referred to the coalition between his Christian Democratic Unionist (CDU) party and the Social Democratic Party (SPD). In the north-eastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party won the most votes, with the CDU failing to reach the 5% threshold to stay in the state parliament. This was the CDU's worst result since the party was formed in 1945, falling to 4.9%.

In Berlin, the CDU came second to the hard-left Die Linke party, with the AfD also making gains, receiving 16.3% of the vote. Die Linke finished first in Berlin with 25.7% of the vote. The AfD won 38.2% of the votes in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Merz described the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern result as a heavy blow and a profound turning point, calling it a dramatic, unprecedented result for the CDU in Germany.

The AfD's top candidate in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Leif-Erik Holm, predicted Merz would be out of office before the end of the year. The AfD announced a formal partnership with the hard-right Italian party Future Nazionale (FN) over the weekend. FN leader Roberto Vannacci introduced AfD's Marc Jongen at a rally in Orvieto, Italy, where Jongen boasted that Italian and German parties would soon greet each other through their respective governments.

These latest elections came two weeks after the AfD also dealt a defeat to the CDU in Saxony-Anhalt. Merz has been in power for 16 months, during which his approval ratings have plummeted, and his party has suffered a string of state vote losses against the AfD. The AfD also leads nationwide polls. The postwar German model rested on competition between the Christian Democrats and Social Democrats, providing stability.

The AfD ran on an anti-immigration platform in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, calling for more deportations and a state border and deportation police force. They also proposed withdrawing from the interstate broadcasting treaty.