By Andreas Rinke and Matthias Williams
ROVANIEMI, Finland, Sept 14 (Reuters) – Germany’s under-fire Chancellor Friedrich Merz called on colleagues to look beyond debates about his political future on Monday, warning that the protection of Europe was entering a decisive phase in the coming weeks and months.
A year after taking office, Merz’s position and his reform programme have come under pressure as his conservatives were trounced by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in a state election last week.
In an increasingly polarized political system, Merz, whose personal approval ratings have sunk to record lows, has been one of the main targets of voter ire over the cost of living, pensions and economic insecurity.
He won some respite over the weekend as his CDU conservatives topped municipal elections in the state of Lower Saxony, but will face a sterner test in two more state elections on Sunday. The AfD is set to top a poll in the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, while the state of Berlin also goes to the polls.
“Germany is so closely linked with the destiny of the European continent that we cannot decouple foreign security policy from what we are debating at home,” Merz said, when asked about his position at an Arctic summit in Finland.
“That’s the reason why I’m trying to convince my colleagues, my friends, my political party, the parliamentary group, that this is important, much more important than some of the domestic debates we actually have.”
The AfD has called for a 180-degree turn on Germany’s policy towards Russia, urging Berlin to restore ties with Moscow, regain access to Russia’s abundant cheap energy resources and halt aid for Ukraine.
Germany has been Ukraine’s biggest donor in Europe since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. Merz said he would not “go back one centimetre” on Berlin’s policy.
“I know the arguments, I see the debate, I see the reservations we are seeing in parts of the country,” he said. But he cautioned that if Russia prevailed, it would have “unprecedented consequences for all of us, including Germany.”
MERZ’S PARTY WINS MUNICIPAL POLLS
Merz gained some relief after the CDU won 27.2% of the vote in municipal elections in the northwestern state of Lower Saxony at the weekend, with its coalition ally the Social Democrats on 24.6%, while the AfD climbed to third place with 15.9%.
The CDU’s leader in the state, which is home to car firm Volkswagen and steelmaker Salzgitter among others, welcomed the result but called for change.
“I believe a political shift is needed in Berlin. We need to ease the burden on people. Energy prices are too high and housing costs are too high,” Sebastian Lechner said in Hanover, according to Die Zeit newspaper.
“We, too, have sensed the dissatisfaction with Berlin.”
Last week, the AfD came within touching distance of winning the election in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt outright and could yet form a government there, the first time a far-right party would do so in postwar Germany.
The results put the focus on whether Merz is now an electoral liability, and also whether he will be forced to change course on a reform programme that he says will revive sluggish growth in Europe’s largest economy.
A poll by INSA over the weekend said 78% of people do not think Merz should be chancellor. Among his own party, 58% of voters no longer want Merz in charge, with 36% still backing him.
Clara von Nathusius, the treasurer of the CDU’s youth wing, said the CDU had a credibility problem.
“It doesn’t hinge solely on Friedrich Merz, though it does play a part,” she told the ARD broadcaster. “And that is why, unfortunately, I believe no more elections can be won with this chancellor.”
(Reporting by Andreas Rinke, Matthias Williams, Friederike Heine; Writing by Matthias Williams; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Alex Richardson)
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