BERLIN — Last night, Friedrich Merz should have been on his way to New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly. Instead he was at his Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party’s headquarters in Berlin from where he broke the stunned silence as exit polls for two state elections showed its worst result since World War II.

State elections for parliament seats, which in turn elect a government and a governor, were held in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and in the city of Berlin. In both places, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) made significant gains since the last state elections in 2021 and 2023, receiving 38.2% in the rural northeastern state and 16.3 % in the capital. In Berlin, the far-left Die Linke came in first with 25.7% of the vote, seven percentage points ahead of the CDU.

Receiving just 4.9% of the vote in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the CDU hasn’t even cleared the threshold meant to keep fringe parties out of parliament. Merz quashed talk within the press and his own party about his possible resignation despite Sunday’s losses for his party just two weeks after a crushing defeat in the state of Saxony-Anhalt.

Usually, the German federal chancellor does not comment so promptly on state election results, especially for two states with relatively small electorates. But his party’s crushing defeat in both states is starting to reflect poorly on Merz.

Merz conceded that the night spells “disaster” for the political center, but assured the public he’d push ahead with his federal agenda of tax and welfare reforms, describing them as “the antidote to the poison of authoritarianism.”

He stressed that implementing these reforms “require backbone, steadfastness and patience” and that he will “demonstrate this” as “chancellor of our country.”

A woman holds ballons of the Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party to prepare the election party at the House of Representatives of Berlin during regional elections in the German capital on September 20, 2026. Germans began voting in two state elections – the capital Berlin and the northeastern federal state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania – where far-right and far-left gains could send new shock waves to Berlin and rock the government of embattled Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

RALF HIRSCHBERGER/AFP via Getty Images

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RALF HIRSCHBERGER/AFP via Getty Images

Speaking to public broadcaster ARD, federal leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany — or AfD — Alice Weidel said the more Merz digs in his heels, the more her party benefits.

“Friedrich Merz is the wrong chancellor for the CDU,” Weidel said, “and he is dragging the party down with him.”

The far-right AfD also beat Merz’s coalition partner, the Social Democrats (SPD), in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

But the AfD is unlikely to find coalition partners willing to form a government so the incumbent SPD state governor, Manuela Schwesig — who came in second with 35% of the vote — is expected to find the allies she needs to remain in office.