Merz refuses to quit after CDU suffers historic election losses

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz refused to resign after his Christian Democratic Union suffered a string of devastating state election defeats, deepening a crisis over his leadership of Europe's largest economy. In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, held on Sunday, September 20, the CDU won 4.9 percent of the vote, falling below the five percent threshold and losing all representation in that state parliament for the first time since 1949. Merz called the result a disaster. The Alternative for Germany (AfD) took first place with 38 percent, more than doubling its 2021 result, while the Social Democrats (SPD) finished second with enough seats to remain in power, likely in coalition with Die Linke and the Greens. In Berlin's election on the same day, Die Linke placed first with 26 percent, ahead of the CDU at just under 19 percent, with the AfD third at 16 percent. The results followed the CDU's poor showing in Saxony-Anhalt earlier in September, where its vote share fell to 17 percent while the AfD won 44 percent under Ulrich Siegmund, raising the prospect of the first AfD-led state government. Merz holds the lowest approval rating ever recorded for a sitting German chancellor.