Germany’s under-fire Chancellor Friedrich Merz won some respite on Monday (September 14, 2026) after his CDU conservatives topped municipal polls in the state of Lower Saxony, provisional results showed, with the far-right Alternative for Germany also making strong gains.
The CDU won 27.2% of the vote at the weekend, with its coalition ally the Social Democrats on 24.6%, while the AfD climbed to third place with 15.9%, 11.3 points more than its result in 2021.
A poll by INSA over the weekend said 78% of people do not think Mr. Among his own party, 58% of voters no longer want Mr. Merz in charge, with 36% still backing him.
The results offer some relief for Mr. Merz a week after his party was trounced by the AfD in state elections in eastern Germany, jolting the government and putting his political future and reform programme in question. Mr. Merz will face a sterner test in two more state elections this coming weekend, where the AfD is set to top the polls again in the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The capital Berlin will also hold a state election, where the far-left Die Linke could come out on top. Last week, the AfD came within touching distance of winning the election in Saxony-Anhalt outright and could yet form a government there, the first time a far-right party would do so in postwar Germany. Merz should be chancellor.
Some 46% also thought the so-called “firewall” strategy, which rules out any sort of political accommodation with the AfD by mainstream parties, no longer served its purpose.
