‘Disaster’: Germany’s embattled chancellor suffers bruising election defeats

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz faced a struggle to stabilise his position and keep his agenda on track on 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 on 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 centre-right Christian Democratic Union fell just below the 5 per cent 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.