Overview
- CDU leaders opened a two-day closed-door meeting in Berlin to set their course for five state elections next year, with Merz and General Secretary Carsten Linnemann due to brief results on Monday.
- Merz has declared the AfD the main opponent in upcoming campaigns and insists the 2018 no‑cooperation resolution stands, while saying the CDU will not avoid proposals simply because the AfD may also vote for them.
- Internal pressure persists as figures such as Peter Tauber, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, and MP Saskia Ludwig urge easing the stance, including granting parliamentary posts to AfD lawmakers.
- SPD chairman Lars Klingbeil demands the Union uphold strict non-cooperation, calling it a condition for the SPD’s participation in the federal government.
- Surveys place the AfD roughly level with the Union nationally at about 25–27% and near 40% in eastern states like Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern; in Berlin, a peaceful protest over Merz’s recent “cityscape” remark drew between 800 and 5,000 people, depending on the source.