Merz
cancels UN visit after AfD election win puts his leadership on the ropes
German
chancellor gets support from state leaders but further far-right gains this
weekend could spell the end
Deborah Cole in Berlin
Wed 16
Sep 2026 13.40 BST
Powerful
German state leaders from Friedrich Merz’s party have rallied behind him as
speculation builds that his days in office may be numbered.
The
chancellor’s hold on power has looked increasingly shaky since a bombshell
regional election result earlier this month in which the far-right Alternative
für Deutschland (AfD) party routed his Christian Democratic Union (CDU)
party in Saxony-Anhalt.
With two
more states heading to the polls on Sunday where the AfD is expected to perform
well, Merz cancelled a plan to speak at the UN general assembly in New York
next week because “his presence is required in Berlin”, a government official
said on condition of anonymity.
The
announcement triggered fresh rumours that the unpopular chancellor could be
preparing his own exit or wanted to remain
and fight off a potential coup. With Merz
on the ropes after just 16 months in office, eight state premiers from the CDU issued a surprise joint
statement backing him.
Citing
the threat posed by nativist parties across Europe, they wrote: “Now more than
ever, Germany’s political landscape needs stability”, pointing to elections
in Poland, Italy, Spain, Greece and France next year in which the political
establishment faces
a far-right challenge. “The path to restoring public trust in Christian
Democrats lies in listening and taking political action, not in debates over
personnel.”
They
added that Germany
needed “reliability and decisive action” and, as state leaders, “we want to,
and will, do our part to achieve this together with the chancellor”.
The
signatories included leaders who have been mentioned as possible Merz
successors, such as North Rhine-Westphalia’s Hendrik Wüst. Markus Söder, the
Bavarian premier and an ambitious conservative populist, has also said he was
backing Merz.
Voters in
the Berlin state parliament election are expected to punish the CDU again.
Photograph: Markus Schreiber/AP
It
remains to be seen how long the demonstration of solidarity with Merz will
hold, with much depending on the outcome of the weekend elections. Polls
indicate voters are very likely to punish
the CDU again in the states of Berlin and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania on
the Baltic coast, amid widespread dissatisfaction with Merz’s federal coalition
government formed with the Social Democrats.
Merz, who
is also the CDU’s chair, will convene a meeting of its leadership on Sunday
evening to coordinate a response as the results come in, in what senior party
members called a pre-emptive “show of unity” behind the chancellor.
The
anti-immigration, pro-Kremlin AfD’s resounding win in Saxony-Anhalt sent a
shockwave through Europe’s largest economy and
beyond, although the party fell just short of the absolute majority
required to govern alone in the state.
It is
seeking enough support from other parties’ lawmakers in the state parliament to
make its chief candidate, Ulrich Siegmund, the first far-right regional leader
in Germany since the Nazi period.
The AfD
candidate Ulrich Siegmund came out on top during Saxony-Anhalt’s state
elections earlier this month. Photograph: Matthias Schräder/AP
Merz took
office in May 2025 promising to cut the surging AfD back down to size by
reviving the moribund economy and addressing fears around “irregular”
migration.
Instead,
the AfD is now topping the national polls with clear momentum behind it. The
party’s co-leader, Alice Weidel, has targeted the CDU for “destruction” and
pledged last week in parliament that Merz’s party would “never win another
election again”.
During
the same debate in the Bundestag, a wan and defensive Merz lashed out at Weidel
and the AfD’s lawmakers, accusing them of seeking
“ethnic cleansing” with their calls for “remigration”, a legally dubious
programme of mass deportations. Critics said he failed to outline a clear
vision for the remainder of his term.
Weidel,
whose party drew congratulations from Donald
Trump and Elon
Musk for its Saxony-Anhalt victory, on Wednesday taunted the state leaders
backing Merz.
“The CDU
is making it clear that it is committed to ‘business as usual’ rather than the
positive changes that citizens need,” she posted on Musk’s social media
platform X. “The only way to achieve those changes is with the AfD!”
Alice
Weidel, the AfD’s parliamentary group leader, speaks in the Bundestag last
week. Photograph: Christoph Soeder/DPA/AP
The
month’s developments have triggered a sense of helplessness and fear among the
mainstream democratic parties, with even the opposition Green party calling on
the CDU to right the ship before it is too late.
“Get your
shit together,” said the Greens co-leader Felix Banaszak in Berlin, appealing
to Merz and the CDU to end speculation that he called destabilising.
Banaszak
said that while he was no fan of the centre-right-led government, he warned
that calls for a Kanzlertausch,
a swap of the chancellor from Merz in favour of another Christian Democrat,
could trigger new elections in which the AfD could come out on top.
“We live
in such dramatic times that this country just can’t afford that right now,” he
said.
The next
general election is due in 2029.
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