Chancellor Friedrich Merz of the CDU has left open the question of what his role and that of the federal government would look like should the AfD secure a victory in the upcoming state elections. When asked during the traditional summer press conference on Wednesday whether he would face personal consequences if the AfD appointed a prime minister, the chancellor stated, “I assume that we can prevent that scenario from happening.”
Merz also evaded a question regarding whether he would object to Saxony-Anhalt’s Minister-President, Sven Schulze (CDU), potentially re-electing himself with support from the Left Party. He responded by focusing on the timeline: “We will decide everything that happens after September 6th, after September 6th. And until September 6th, we will strive to enable stable political conditions in both Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.”
The election schedule includes a state election in Saxony-Anhalt on September 6th, where polls indicate the AfD is nearing an absolute majority in the parliament. Two weeks later, voters will head to the polls in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and the city of Berlin. In the Schwerin state parliament, the AfD is also projected to become the strongest force, while the race in the capital city is poised to be a close contest among the CDU, Green Party, and Left Party, with the latter currently holding a slight lead in the latest Infratest poll.
