Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party has suffered the worst defeat in its history, failing to win a single seat in the state election in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern as the Right-wing AfD took 38.2% of the vote. The Telegraph has more.
The hard-Right populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) took 38.2% of the vote, while the hard-Left Die Linke beat the CDU in mayoral elections in Berlin. Merz is scheduled to address the public on Monday afternoon.
The astonishingly poor result meant that, for the first time, the CDU failed to win enough votes to enter a state parliament in Germany.
Under the country’s voting system, parties that fall below the 5% threshold are not assigned any seats in the next parliament.
Such a scenario was virtually unthinkable for the CDU – the German version of the Conservatives and a mainstay of coalition governments for decades – until Sunday night.
Merz was already facing calls to resign over his party’s poor performance in a previous election in Saxony-Anhalt this month, where the CDU lost swathes of support to the AfD.
According to DPA, a German news agency, the CDU held a crisis meeting about the results on Sunday evening, with the talks descending into “verbal clashes”.
Another crisis meeting later that night was attended by seven CDU state leaders, some of the most senior figures in the party, and was said to have lasted for nearly two hours.
Christian Gräff, a former CDU state MP and the Chairman of the Berlin Mittelstand Union, called for Merz’s resignation over the election results.
“Merz has got to go. He can’t do executive work and he can’t do communication,” he posted on X.
He later told the DPA news agency: “I believe that the people in Germany want reforms. Merz lacks the skills and communication abilities to implement them.”
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stewart
2 hours ago
Interesting how the eastern regions, formerly the DDR, is where the most enthusiasm for the AfD is.
The DDR used to be part of the Soviet, communist bloc. What people would call far left.
And now, apparently they’ve swung all the way to the far (hard) right.
Big swing.
OR, could it be, that what they call hard right is actually left wing, with an emphasis on nationalism?
For some reason, the left wants to disown nationalism. But China – a communist centrally planned country – is very nationalist. Cuba, one of the last remaining bastions of communism is nationalist. North Korea, the most totalitarian communist society in the world is nationalist.
Why do people have this idea that nationalism is right wing?
It’s because the East Germans recognise State-tyranny when they see it, and all the so-called democratic Governments of Europe & UK are cartels of tyrants.
JXB
3 hours ago
Hard Right populist AfD?
One day it’s Far Right, others Hard Right, next Extreme Right then “literally” it’s a troupe of reincarnated Hitlers.
Like Trump/MAGA in USA, Reform UK, Groupe Rassemblement National in France they are Parties to the Right of the supposed centre of the political spectrum.
Hard, Far, Extreme are pejoratives intended to imply they are all “literally” Fascist/Nazis and the end of times.
”Populist” is an empty signifier. It has no clear meaning other than people we don’t like and think differently to the entrenched ruling class and their acolytes.
Why only half? if you consider left-wing as favouring collectivist policies, then the Conservatives are firmly on the left. In fact, I’m pretty sure almost everyone is. Pretty much everyone I encounter thinks the level of state intervention in our lives is about right – or still not enough in some areas – and really what they object to is excess immigration – which is really neither a left nor right wing issue.
North Korea, perhaps the most left wing country there has ever been, is extremely nationalist, has pretty strict immigration policy and firm control of its border.
Given that I was responding to someone objecting to the pejoratives hard-, far-, and extreme-right I am happy to say that Labour are hard-left in my opinion. I’m also happy to point out that the Conservatives are Soft- on pretty much everything.
80 years of Socialist welfare-state indoctrination that everyone can live off each other, that robbing Selective Peter to pay Collective Paul is “fair”, that most people are so State-dependant they cannot look after themselves – not surprising.
But just look at how many get their money from the State – civil servants, public sector workers, NGOs, academia, dole/benefits queue permanent residents, pensioners.
They done want change, they want MORE! paid for by others.
The idea that nationalism is right wing is nonsense.
It’s a consequence of the Left’s belief that nationalism is wrongthink. Much of the progressive view (including Conservative wets) is formed from favouring the Global view over the ‘purely local’ national view.
Nationalism existed before politics had “wings” or before we have the abortion we call politics. It has been converted into a pejorative to fling at people who want to keep their way of life.
The Nation State of the Angelcynn (the union of Angels, Saxons, Jutes) was created in 927AD by Æthelstan who united the five kingdoms Wessex, Mercia, East Anglia, Kent, and Northumbria, finally defeating the Vikings.
It was Nationalism that Harold of Wessex was protecting at Hastings, Drake against the Armada, Nelson at Trafalgar.
Indeed. It’s the Telegraph – anyone to the right of the Tories won’t do.
Our German fellow BTL commenter RW wrote once that AfD policies were very similar to what the CDU followed not that long ago.
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Interesting how the eastern regions, formerly the DDR, is where the most enthusiasm for the AfD is.
The DDR used to be part of the Soviet, communist bloc. What people would call far left.
And now, apparently they’ve swung all the way to the far (hard) right.
Big swing.
OR, could it be, that what they call hard right is actually left wing, with an emphasis on nationalism?
For some reason, the left wants to disown nationalism. But China – a communist centrally planned country – is very nationalist. Cuba, one of the last remaining bastions of communism is nationalist. North Korea, the most totalitarian communist society in the world is nationalist.
Why do people have this idea that nationalism is right wing?
It’s because the East Germans recognise State-tyranny when they see it, and all the so-called democratic Governments of Europe & UK are cartels of tyrants.
Hard Right populist AfD?
One day it’s Far Right, others Hard Right, next Extreme Right then “literally” it’s a troupe of reincarnated Hitlers.
Like Trump/MAGA in USA, Reform UK, Groupe Rassemblement National in France they are Parties to the Right of the supposed centre of the political spectrum.
Hard, Far, Extreme are pejoratives intended to imply they are all “literally” Fascist/Nazis and the end of times.
”Populist” is an empty signifier. It has no clear meaning other than people we don’t like and think differently to the entrenched ruling class and their acolytes.
I think we could accept that in the UK Labour is Hard-Left and the Conservatives are Soft-Left.
(Only half joking).
Why only half? if you consider left-wing as favouring collectivist policies, then the Conservatives are firmly on the left. In fact, I’m pretty sure almost everyone is. Pretty much everyone I encounter thinks the level of state intervention in our lives is about right – or still not enough in some areas – and really what they object to is excess immigration – which is really neither a left nor right wing issue.
North Korea, perhaps the most left wing country there has ever been, is extremely nationalist, has pretty strict immigration policy and firm control of its border.
Well I couldn’t say that I was fully joking.
Given that I was responding to someone objecting to the pejoratives hard-, far-, and extreme-right I am happy to say that Labour are hard-left in my opinion. I’m also happy to point out that the Conservatives are Soft- on pretty much everything.
“In fact, I’m pretty sure almost everyone is.”
80 years of Socialist welfare-state indoctrination that everyone can live off each other, that robbing Selective Peter to pay Collective Paul is “fair”, that most people are so State-dependant they cannot look after themselves – not surprising.
But just look at how many get their money from the State – civil servants, public sector workers, NGOs, academia, dole/benefits queue permanent residents, pensioners.
They done want change, they want MORE! paid for by others.
it’s neither hard nor right.
The idea that nationalism is right wing is nonsense.
It’s a consequence of the Left’s belief that nationalism is wrongthink. Much of the progressive view (including Conservative wets) is formed from favouring the Global view over the ‘purely local’ national view.
Nationalism existed before politics had “wings” or before we have the abortion we call politics. It has been converted into a pejorative to fling at people who want to keep their way of life.
The Nation State of the Angelcynn (the union of Angels, Saxons, Jutes) was created in 927AD by Æthelstan who united the five kingdoms Wessex, Mercia, East Anglia, Kent, and Northumbria, finally defeating the Vikings.
It was Nationalism that Harold of Wessex was protecting at Hastings, Drake against the Armada, Nelson at Trafalgar.
Indeed. It’s the Telegraph – anyone to the right of the Tories won’t do.
Our German fellow BTL commenter RW wrote once that AfD policies were very similar to what the CDU followed not that long ago.