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.