(de-news.net) – CDU Chairman and Chancellor Friedrich Merz has described the Berlin and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania election results as a political turning point requiring a broad reassessment of the CDU’s position, structure and future course. Senior CDU leaders reiterated their support for Merz and the coalition’s reform agenda, but internal criticism concentrated on the Federal Government’s policies and the need for practical, socially responsible reforms. In reaction to Berlin’s Left-backed plans, Merz also announced legislation prohibiting the expropriation of residential property.
The results of the state elections in Berlin and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania marked a political turning point for Germany’s Christian Democrats, according to CDU Chairman and Chancellor Friedrich Merz. He also acknowledged that the CDU faced significant consequences from the results that could continue to affect the party for years. Speaking after a meeting of the CDU presidium in Berlin, Merz said the elections required a comprehensive internal assessment while reflecting broader changes underway in Germany’s political party system.
Merz said the CDU would need to reconsider its position, organizational structure and future direction while maintaining political stability and a clear course. The election results, in his assessment, extended beyond questions concerning his own leadership and pointed to wider developments in the party system. He therefore called for a new form of cooperation within the party and urged that discussions with the state premiers on the Federal Government’s course and the process for the coming weeks begin quickly.
Merz also announced that the Federal Government would move rapidly toward adopting legislation intended to prevent the expropriation of residential property. He said the measure would establish that private property could not be expropriated in Germany and argued that Berlin’s Left-backed plans to socialize major real-estate companies were having a damaging effect on investors in Germany and abroad. Draft legislation was already available, he said, and the Cabinet could consider it relatively quickly. Following the Left Party’s victory in the Berlin election, party leader Ines Schwerdtner reaffirmed the proposal to socialize large real-estate companies as part of the party’s effort to secure affordable housing in the capital. The Greens indicated support, while the Berlin SPD had rejected the proposal during the campaign as financially unviable, potentially making the issue a significant point of disagreement in coalition discussions.
CDU leaders rally behind Merz
After the CDU’s losses in the state elections, leading party figures largely rallied behind Merz and rejected calls for a debate over his position. Parliamentary deputy Günter Krings argued that an alternative to Merz would only merit serious consideration if someone could demonstrate that another leader would produce better results, which he said was not currently evident. CDU deputy chairman Karl-Josef Laumann likewise said the party leadership remained firmly behind the chancellor, while Serap Güler, the CDU parliamentary group’s managing director, said Merz continued to have the confidence of the parliamentary group. Former Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania CDU chairman Eckhardt Rehberg, however, criticized the Federal Government’s policies after the CDU fell below the state’s five-percent electoral threshold.
North Rhine-Westphalia Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) urged the CDU to respond to the results with greater cohesion and practical action. He described the outcome as a serious warning for the entire party as well as for Germany’s democratic parties and argued that an internal struggle over responsibility would not address voters’ concerns. What mattered to citizens, he said, was whether the state could fulfill its basic responsibilities, including ensuring security, enforcing rules and providing reliable public services. Where people perceived politics as producing more discussion than effective action, he argued, public support could decline. The immediate response, in his view, therefore needed to focus on solving problems and demonstrating reliability.
NRW Health Minister Laumann (CDU) also rejected speculation about Merz’s political future, describing the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania result as a major setback for the CDU while emphasizing the importance of maintaining a government capable of acting. He backed the continuation of the coalition’s reform course and said it was important that the chancellor had made clear that the government would remain in office. At the same time, Laumann stressed that reforms needed to be designed around people’s everyday circumstances. The changes, he argued, should be socially balanced and accompanied by sufficient public support.
Following the AfD’s further electoral gains, party co-leader Alice Weidel portrayed her party as the political heir to the CDU’s longstanding role as a major people’s party. She attributed the CDU’s decline to policies that she characterized as adopting left-wing positions despite previous promises to the contrary. Weidel also called on the Christian Democrats to reconsider their strategy of maintaining a political firewall against the AfD, placing the issue of relations between the two parties once again within the broader debate over the CDU’s future political direction.
