German Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) has issued a forceful warning about the potential electoral success of the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) in the upcoming state elections scheduled for September in Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Speaking on Saturday at the CDU state party conference in Linstow, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Merz framed the elections as a pivotal moment for the country's political direction.
"This is fundamentally a test of which direction the Federal Republic of Germany should move in," Merz told delegates. He argued that the AfD was challenging the very foundations that had made Germany what it is today.
Merz invoked the words of Green politician Joschka Fischer to underline the severity of the AfD's ambitions. Fischer had previously said that the AfD wants to take Germany back to the era before Konrad Adenauer, a period Merz defined plainly as the time of National Socialism, with all its most extreme abuses. Merz stressed that Germany had left that chapter behind under Adenauer's leadership and made clear there was no going back.
"We never want to return there," the Chancellor declared, "and that is why we will not hand our country over to extremists."
Merz also pushed back against what he described as a culture of pessimism within Germany. He urged citizens and party members alike to resist so-called "apocalyptic fantasies" and to project greater confidence in the country's future. "Let us be a little more optimistic about Germany," he said, stressing the importance of countering narratives that talk the country down rather than build it up.
Turning to the economic outlook for the eastern states, Merz pointed to what he described as encouraging signs on the ground. He said he had been personally struck by the upbeat mood among entrepreneurs at a recent East German economic forum. The positive sentiment, he noted, extended well beyond agriculture and tourism — the sectors most traditionally associated with the eastern German economy.
Merz was unambiguous about what failure in September would mean. "If we are not good enough, there will be a big bang in September," he warned, using blunt language to signal the potential consequences of a strong AfD result. He made clear the stakes went beyond the fate of any single government. "What is at issue now is whether we, from the political centre of this country, have the strength to tackle and solve the political problems at hand," he said.
Merz did not reserve his criticism exclusively for the far right. He also drew a firm line against the Left Party, the successor to the Socialist Unity Party (SED) that governed East Germany for four decades. The political centre, he argued, faces pressure from both extremes of the political spectrum.
The Left Party, he said, oppressed people in this country for forty years and is today acting as though it were a reliable partner, a claim Merz flatly rejected. His remarks made clear that for the CDU, defending the centre means resisting threats from both ends of the political spectrum equally.
From breaking news to thought-provoking opinion pieces, our newsletter keeps you informed & engaged.
