{"id":465535,"date":"2026-09-21T11:05:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T09:05:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/09\/21\/germania-il-centro-del-cancelliere-merz-si-schianta-alle-urne-avanti-afd-e-sinistra\/"},"modified":"2026-09-21T11:40:54","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T09:40:54","slug":"germany-merzs-centrist-bloc-slumps-at-the-polls-as-afd-and-the-left-advance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/09\/21\/germany-merzs-centrist-bloc-slumps-at-the-polls-as-afd-and-the-left-advance\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany: Merz\u2019s centrist bloc slumps at the polls as AfD and the Left advance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 The German Christian Democrats\u2019 stronghold is crumbling amid the rise of the far-right AfD (Alternative f\u00fcr Deutschland) and the Linke (The Left). The two rounds of elections held yesterday (20 September) took place in the north-eastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and in Berlin. Two election results that have left the German Chancellor\u2019s party in tatters<\/strong>: it failed to win a single seat in the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania state parliament. It lost control of the capital\u2019s government, which it had shared with the Social Democrats. At the end of the day, Chancellor Friedrich Merz<\/strong> did not mince his words: \u201cA disaster, but I\u2019m not resigning; I\u2019m carrying on.\u201d <\/p>\n

The AfD is on the rise: in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania it is the leading party with 38.2 per cent of the vote, and in Berlin it is third with 15.8 per cent (almost seven percentage points higher than in 2023). In the capital, however, it has not made a significant breakthrough, and in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania it seems unlikely that it will be able to form a government, after the other parties stated that they did not wish to form alliances with the far right. The surprise comes from the Left Party (Die Linke), which, for the first time, won the German capital (24.9 per cent of the vote), opening up the possibility of a government with the Social Democrats (SPD) (12 per cent) and the Greens (14.3 per cent). The CDU came second in Berlin with 19.2 per cent.<\/p>\n

 Both elections saw a significant drop in the abstention rate<\/strong>. In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, 78.1 per cent of eligible voters cast their ballots, compared with 70.8 per cent in the 2021 elections. In Berlin, turnout stood at 74.2 per cent, a sharp increase from the 62.9 per cent in 2023. More specifically, in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the SPD held its ground, coming second with 35.5 per cent, whilst Die Linke came third with 6.5 per cent, followed by the Greens on 5.7 per cent. The CDU failed to make the cut with 4.9 per cent, as did the BSW \u2013 formed by dissidents who split from Die Linke \u2013 which secured 4.8 per cent. The state parliament will now comprise 32 AfD members, 29 Social Democrats, 5 Greens and 5 members of Die Linke. The outgoing majority \u2013 the SPD and Die Linke \u2013 will therefore be unable to form a government unless it is expanded to include the Greens. In any case, the other parties in the assembly have ruled out any collaboration with the far-right AfD. <\/p>\n

At the end of the day, as Merz declares that he will not step down from leading Germany and that he intends to \u201ctake responsibility\u201d and \u201cmove the country forward,\u201d the ones celebrating are AfD leader Alice Weidel <\/strong>\u2014 who instead urges the chancellor to step aside (\u201cMerz should face the consequences, do it for Germany. We have become the strongest party,\u201d she said) \u2014 and Die Linke\u2019s future mayor, Elif Eralp.<\/strong> The latter increasingly appears to be the bulwark against the seemingly unstoppable rise of the far right, and in yesterday\u2019s vote she proved she can be just that. A human rights lawyer and the daughter of Turkish refugees, she speaks of accessible housing and greater integration. Last night she celebrated by emphasising that the victory is \u201ca sign that love and justice have triumphed over the hatred<\/strong>\u201d espoused by the far right. \u201cDear Berliners, from today we are changing our city. We have written a page in history,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The far right has retained its position as the leading force in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, whilst Die Linke won the capital, Berlin, for the first time. Party leader Eralp said: \u201cThis is a sign that love and justice have triumphed over hatred.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":434342,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25681],"tags":[26580,26267,26472,29666,35778,31153,27786,35779],"class_list":["post-465535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-cdu-en-2","tag-sinister-en","tag-linke","tag-merz-en","tag-spd-en","tag-urne"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465535"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":465537,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465535\/revisions\/465537"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}