Germany’s far-right AfD wins another state election, piling pressure on Chancellor Merz, exit polls show

By Sebastian Shukla, Sophie Tanno, Thom Poole, CNN

Berlin (CNN) — German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party is facing a dire set of results in state elections, exit polls show, and is set to be squeezed both by the surging far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and parties on the left.

The AfD is projected to win the north-eastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern on 38%, the exit poll from Germany’s public broadcaster shows, just two weeks after the party had its best result yet in Saxony-Anhalt.

Merz’s CDU is currently on 5%, barely enough to seal representation in the largely rural state, piling pressure on his beleaguered leadership.

In the other election on Sunday, the left-wing Die Linke party leads in Berlin on 26%, followed by the CDU and the Greens, according to the exit polls.

There were audible groans inside the CDU watch party in Berlin as the results were read out for both regions.

Merz described the results in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern as a “disaster” in a speech after the exit polls were released.

Yet the chancellor remained defiant as he spoke of the need for reform to address Germany’s economic issues and deepening divisions. “The answer cannot be to go back to the good old days,” he said.

Prior to Sunday’s projections, the CDU’s worst result in a state election to date was 75 years ago: in 1951, it garnered 9% in Bremen – the only time the party has remained in single digits in a state election.

AfD co-leader Alice Weidel was gleeful as the exit polls were announced, telling CNN that her party is “clearly the new people’s party in Germany.”

“We have overtaken the CDU, and people want a change of policy,” Weidel said. She described Merz as “strongly damaged,” adding: “I believe the CDU cannot continue with Friedrich Merz, with a weak chancellor.”

In Berlin, the AfD is outlooked to come in fourth with 13.5%. While not comparable to its gains elsewhere, the result is a notable sign of how the far right is finding support even in the cosmopolitan capital; in Berlin’s last state parliament election in 2023, the AfD took 9.1% of the vote.

Sunday’s elections come at a critical moment for Merz, arriving just two weeks after the AfD delivered a crushing blow to his party with a historic state election victory in Saxony-Anhalt, where it took 44% of the vote.

The result sent shockwaves through Germany’s political establishment and intensified speculation over Merz’s future as chancellor.

In Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, like Saxony-Anhalt a former East German state, the AfD sought to capitalize on anger over Germany’s economic inequalities and dissatisfaction with Merz, while campaigning on a platform of mass deportations of undocumented migrants, an end to military aid in Ukraine and closer ties with Russia. The AfD’s candidate for state premier previously told CNN the party’s approach was comparable to the Trump administration’s “America First” agenda.

The election was also a test of popularity for the center-left Social Democratic Party’s Manuela Schwesig, who has governed the state since 2017. Schwesig, the first woman to hold the role of state premier in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, campaigned hard to prevent another AfD breakthrough, warning in her final rally of “dark clouds” in reference to the far-right party. She focused on jobs, education and social cohesion in her campaign.

Exit polling put the SPD just behind the AfD, with 36.5% of the vote.

The state is facing a severe shortage of skilled workers, thanks to an aging population and lower birth rates. Around 50,000 people from an immigrant background work in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Reuters reported, playing a key part in its economy while running up against far-right anti-immigration sentiment.

The political picture in Berlin was markedly different. The capital’s state parliament election was predicted to be a close contest between Die Linke and the CDU.

Housing affordability was a central issue during the campaign, after a decade of rising rents in the city and with a major shortage of housing projected in the years ahead.

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