By Ingrid "Shortwave" Frost
About 3.8 million voters in Berlin and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania went to the polls Sunday, in an election being read well beyond those two states' borders as a verdict on Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
The vote comes two weeks after the far-right, anti-immigration Alternative für Deutschland scored its highest-ever result in a regional election in Saxony-Anhalt. The AfD, which has also drawn scrutiny for its friendly posture toward the Kremlin, is expected to drain further support from Merz's Christian Democratic Union.
Merz's own political future is described by German press as hanging in the balance. He leads a coalition government still finding its footing, and a second strong AfD showing in as many contests would harden the sense that Germany's political center is losing ground, state by state, to a movement most mainstream parties have refused to govern with.
The results will matter beyond Berlin. Germany is the EU's largest economy and a linchpin of European support for Ukraine; a chancellor visibly weakened at home has less room to maneuver abroad. For now, the story is the trend line — two elections, two gains for the AfD — more than any single night's tally.
— Compiled from reporting by The Guardian and Al Jazeera.
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