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Merz Struggles to Stay on Track 09/21 06:15
BERLIN (AP) -- German Chancellor Friedrich Merz faced a struggle to
stabilize his position and keep his agenda on track Monday after voters
inflicted two more defeats on his party, ejecting it from a state legislature
for the first time in its eight-decade history.
The unpopular Merz vowed to stay on and push through reforms to Germany,
Europe's biggest economy, minutes after polls closed Sunday in regional
elections in Berlin and in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, a largely rural
eastern region on the Baltic Sea coast.
Still, final results underlined the extent of what Merz conceded was a
"disaster" in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. His center-right Christian
Democratic Union fell just below the 5% of the vote needed to keep seats in the
regional parliament, the first time that has happened in 77 years of modern
Germany's federal republic, after losing more than half its support.
The CDU also dropped to second place in Berlin behind the hard-left Left
Party, which is in pole position to lead the next city government -- though
Merz's party could, depending on how coalition talks go, still retain city hall.
A far-right party gains again
Neither state is one of Germany's political heavyweights. The CDU's 2023 win
in Berlin was its only one in the past 25 years in the capital, which has
tended to lean left, and the party was already weak in Mecklenburg-Western
Pomerania.
But the manner of its defeat in the latter in particular adds to the
headwinds Merz faces after a stinging defeat by the far-right Alternative for
Germany two weeks ago in Saxony-Anhalt, another region in the formerly
communist east, damaged his authority and set off speculation that he might be
replaced.
Alternative for Germany, or AfD, emerged as the strongest party in
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, but the center-left Social Democrats -- the
junior party in Merz's national governing coalition -- were fairly close behind
after a campaign focused squarely on the state governor, Manuela Schwesig, as a
bulwark against the far-right party. That polarization helped squeeze other
mainstream parties, including the CDU.
A left-leaning three-party coalition under Schwesig would have a majority in
the new regional legislature.
Questions over how Germany should be reformed
Schwesig and others in the governing parties have cast doubt on aspects of
the federal government's reform agenda, which is meant to bolster a chronically
sluggish economy. The reform plans include a potentially painful overhaul of
the creaking pension system, a reduction of Germany's stifling bureaucracy and
cuts to income tax for low- and middle-income families.
The Social Democrats' national leaders said Monday that they stand by the
coalition. But they made clear that they will seek at least some changes to the
plans.
Vice Chancellor Lars Klingbeil, who is also the finance minister, said that
"saying we will ignore what voters told us in three state elections won't work."
"We need reforms, but these reforms must be fair and they need support in
the population," he said. The party's other co-leader, Labor Minister Brbel
Bas, said the plans need a "reality check" and a "fairness check," but that she
was optimistic of finding solutions on the pension system reform, the most
controversial plan.
"There would be nothing more lethal than letting this coalition break apart
over some technical question," Bas said.
Merz faces more meetings Monday with his party's leadership. Much will
depend on the CDU's influential regional leaders; the party's eight state
governors last week backed the chancellor, though questions remained about how
wholehearted their support was.
There are at least no more electoral tests this year. However, five state
elections are scheduled next year, three of them in April.
They include one in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populous state,
currently led by a prominent CDU figure often cited as a possible successor to
Merz, Hendrik Wst. None of the five elections is in the east, where AfD is
strongest.
"I don't see that swapping out a leadership figure would really bring a
change," Education Minister Karin Prien, who is also a deputy CDU leader, told
Phoenix television, adding that she doesn't see "another personnel offer"
coming.
"So we must now discuss with one another -- together with the chancellor as
a government, and on the other hand as a party -- how we win more acceptance
and more credibility among the population," Prien said.
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