German Chancellor Friedrich Merz vows party overhaul after election defeat

BERLIN — German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Monday pledged to overhaul his party’s platform and decision-making processes after suffering another humiliating election defeat, calling the result a “major turning point.”

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) won around 38% of the vote in the northeastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania on Sunday — triumphing over Merz’s center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which suffered its worst-ever result in postwar Germany and crashed out of the state parliament.

“It is a dramatic and unprecedented result for the CDU … an entire state parliamentary caucus has been eliminated from the state legislature,” Merz told reporters Monday at his party’s headquarters in Berlin. “We will feel its repercussions for a long time,” he added.

Party officials had warned that an outcome below 5% for the CDU in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania would unleash a storm of criticism and renew calls for a change in leadership, or Kanzlertausch.

But Merz is clinging to power — for now.

Unless he steps aside voluntarily, forcing a leadership change risks triggering a snap election at a time when polls show the far right to be the country’s most popular party — making such a move unlikely for the time being. That could quickly change if party members begin speaking out against him.

That’s why Merz has vowed to chart a new course for the CDU, announcing consultations in the coming days to unite the party’s rank and file behind him.

The chancellor said he would engage in “intensive deliberations” with his party’s leadership to work out how they could remain a people’s party that attracts large and diverse swathes of the electorate.

“We will discuss the party’s work and structure, our platform, and the CDU’s public image,” he said. “To be frank, we no longer have satisfactory answers to too many questions. And that is something we will and must change.”

“We know that the federal government and the states must stand together and join forces,” he added. “We must — and we will — find a new way of working together, and to that end, we will hold discussions with the state premiers very soon regarding the course of action and the process for the coming weeks,” he said.

After deliberations at the CDU headquarters on Sunday evening, the party’s state premiers met secretly in Berlin without the chancellor, according to media reports. That meeting fueled renewed speculation about their weakening support for Merz. On Monday, however, the chancellor said he enjoyed the full backing of his party’s leadership.