The German Chancellor, Friedrich Merz, today promised to maintain the government coalition with the Social Democrats, saying that Germany’s “democratic future” is at stake after the defeats of conservatives in the regional elections on Sunday.
© Lusa
21/09/2026
by
Lusa
“ We are determined together to meet the historic challenges facing our country. This is nothing less than the democratic future of our country”Merz declared to journalists.
The Christian Democratic leader, who has been governing for 16 months in coalition with the Christian Social Union (CSU) and the Social Democratic Party (SPD), reaffirmed his intention to pursue economic and social reforms despite election results.
In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the Alternative to Germany (AfD, far right) won with 38.2% of the votes, followed by SPD, with 35.5%. The CDU obtained only 4.9%, being below the 5% threshold needed to enter the regional parliament for the first time in its history.
In Berlin, the party The Left (Die Linke) was the most voted, with 25.7%, followed by CDU, with 18.8%, and AfD, with 16.3%. The Greens reached 14.3% and the SPD stayed at 12.1%, leaving the coalition between Christian Democrats and Social Democrats without a majority in the capital.
The results constituted a double setback for the parties of the Federal Government: the CDU lost parliamentary representation in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and the coalition with the SPD no longer met the conditions to continue ruling Berlin with the same majority.
The Chancellor met with the leadership of the party and the eight Heads of Democratic-Christian Regional Governments, who did not withdraw his trust.
According to Stern magazine, however, regional leaders met separately for more than two hours without Merz.
Among the reforms that the government intends to maintain is the end of the possibility of early retirement at 63, without penalty, for workers with 45 years of contributions, a proposal challenged by three heads of regional governments in East Germany.
Government Deputy spokesperson Sebastian Hille today assured the executive that he "absolutely" maintains his ability to act and pushed away the possibility that the election results would compromise the reform schedule.
Hille acknowledged that there are voices in the SPD in favour of adjustments, but insisted that this does not mean that the government will “question the whole course of reforms”.