Overview
- Eight CDU minister‑presidents issued a joint statement this week rejecting talk of a ‘Kanzlertausch’ or a minority government and urged the party to focus on unity and policy rather than personnel fights.
- Chancellor Friedrich Merz cancelled a planned trip to the UN, sought sympathetic audiences at a Konrad‑Adenauer‑Stiftung event and is scheduled to campaign in Berlin today to shore up support for the CDU.
- The state elections in Berlin and Mecklenburg‑Vorpommern are being treated as national tests, with tight polls and TV duels framing voters’ choices between continuity and a shift toward the far right in parts of the East.
- Campaign tensions have sharpened over symbolic acts and violence: a Berlin TV candidate wore a watermelon pin associated with Palestinian solidarity and a Linke office in Pankow was daubed with a swastika and SS runes, prompting a Staatsschutz probe.
- The CDU’s emergency rallying reflects pressure from the AfD’s recent gains in Saxony‑Anhalt and a broader debate inside the party over prioritising structural reforms like pensions and healthcare versus internal leadership contests.