Merz's CDU falls below election threshold in Mecklenburg: chancellor calls it a disaster

Chancellor Friedrich Merz's CDU failed to cross the 5 percent threshold in state elections in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern — the party's worst result in regional elections in postwar German history. Merz himself described the outcome as a "disaster." Markus Ziener, an expert at the Marshall Foundation, commented on the significance of this defeat for the all-German political scene.