Merz Vows To Press Ahead With Reforms After Historic German State Election Defeat

Filed 2h ago · Via HuffPost · The Buffoon Desk

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Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

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German Chancellor Friedrich Merz's CDU scored just 4.9 percent in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, its worst state result since World War II, while the far-right AfD surged to 37.9 percent there and made gains in Berlin as well. Merz called the outcome a ‘disaster’ but said he would press ahead with his reform agenda regardless.

The result follows a Sept. 6 defeat to AfD in Saxony-Anhalt, where the far-right party now has its best shot yet at leading a German state government since the war. AfD co-leader Alice Weidel declared her party has ‘displaced the CDU as the people's party.’

Merz, in office 16 months, has struggled to revive Germany's stagnant economy and has faced quiet grumbling within his own party about his leadership, though no senior ally has publicly called for his removal.

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A party scoring under 5 percent in a state it used to run is the kind of number that would make any manager call an emergency meeting. Merz calls it a disaster and then says the plan stays exactly the same, like a farmer whose barn just burned down announcing he'll keep the matches in the same drawer. Voters tend to notice when the only response to bad news is more of what caused it.

Source: Read the original at HuffPost → Scored: Myst · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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