Berlin (CNN) — German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party is facing a dire set of results in state elections, exit polls show, and is set to be squeezed both by the surging far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and parties on the left.
The AfD is projected to win the north-eastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern on 38%, the exit poll from Germany’s public broadcaster shows, just two weeks after the party had its best result yet in Saxony-Anhalt.
Merz’s CDU is currently on 5%, barely enough to seal representation in the largely rural state, piling pressure on his beleaguered leadership.
In the other election on Sunday, the left-wing Die Linke party leads in Berlin on 26%, followed by the CDU and the Greens, according to the exit polls.
There were audible groans inside the CDU watch party in Berlin as the results were read out for both regions.
Merz described the results in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern as a “disaster” in a speech after the exit polls were released.
Yet the chancellor remained defiant as he spoke of the need for reform to address Germany’s economic issues and deepening divisions. “The answer cannot be to go back to the good old days,” he sai...