Merz Could Be Ousted if His Party Performs Poorly in Weekend Elections

The future of Friedrich Merz as the German chancellor could rest on the results of two state elections that will take place on Sunday.Alternative for Germany is expected to outpace Mr. Merz’s Christian Democrats in the vote in the northeastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and the far-left is leading in the Berlin state election.The AfD is hoping to build on a blowout victory in this month’s regional election in the state of Saxony-Anhalt. The election marked the strongest results for a far-right party since World War II.Polling shows AfD is poised to make strong gains in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, a rural region in the formerly communist East Germany where AfD’s anti-immigration message has resonated.The path for AfD is a little more difficult in Berlin where the Left Party has a narrow lead over the Christian Democrats and AfD is a few points behind in third place.The Christian Democratic Union currently is in control of Berlin but Mayor Kai Wegner dropped out of the race in July after reports he played tennis during a four-day power outage in Berlin at the start of the year. Mr. Wegner’s deputy, Stefan Evers, is now running to replace him. Mr. Merz, the leader of the CDU, appeared Thursday at a campaign event with Mr. Evers. If Mr. Evers loses to either the Left Party or AfD candidate, it could increase pressure on Mr. Merz — deeply unpopular among even his own party — to resign.Mr. Merz’s approval ratings are at a record low as Germans blame him for inflation, a severe pension crisis, and industrial struggles. The chancellor’s July plan to raise Germany’s retirement age to 67 was greeted with anger by powerful labor unions. In another blow to Mr. Merz, Volkswagen this month, announced a restructuring plan that could eliminate an additional 50,000 jobs, affecting about 15 percent of the carmaker’s total workforce.The Christian Democrat’s deputy state chairman in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Tino Schomann, has already called for Mr. Merz to be replaced. “He’s the wrong man for the job,” Mr. Schomann told NDR. “We need a personality who conveys empathy, credibility, and reliability. He has shown that he cannot do that,” Mr. Schomann added.So far, the party’s eight state governors, continue to publicly back Mr. Merz. “Political Germany needs stability now more than ever. In this situation, what matters most is the unity, the drive and a clear direction of the German Christian Democrats,” the leaders said in a Wednesday statement, news agency dpa reported. That support will be tested in the weekend vote but Mr. Merz says he has no intention to step aside. “Giving up is not an option for me,” Mr. Merz said after the Saxony-Anhalt drubbing.Mr. Merz, in 2018, promised to cut support for the AfD in half but the party’s popularity has gone in the opposite direction. A poll released Wednesday shows the AfD would win the most seats in parliament in a national election with 27 percent of the vote.The AfD’s national leader, Alice Weidel, predicted after the Saxony-Anhalt results, that Mr. Merz will be forced out “before Christmas.” A double defeat Sunday for the Christian Democrats might speed that process.The minister-president of North Rhine-Westphalia, Hendrik Wüst, who also serves as a state chairman of the Christian Democrats, is viewed as a possible successor to Mr. Merz. Germany’s national intelligence agencies have classified AfD as a right-wing extremist movement and Mr. Wüst has called for an investigation into whether to ban the party as a “last resort.”

Merz Could Be Ousted if His Party Performs Poorly in Weekend Elections

Merz Could Be Ousted if His Party Performs Poorly in Weekend Elections

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