Merz's CDU Takes Damaging Losses in Two German State Elections

Exit polls showed damaging losses for Chancellor Friedrich Merz's centre-right CDU in the states of Berlin and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. NPR reports that Merz has faced a major electoral setback across two state elections, with his centre-right party losing ground — and that the far-right Alternative for Germany made significant gains. Two state contests are not a national vote, but a governing party shedding ground in both on the same night is a result its opponents will keep quoting.