Merz vows reform push despite historic state election losses

In two state elections held on the same day, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz watched his center-right CDU suffer losses that history will mark as significant, while the far-right AfD moved from the margins closer to the center of German political life. The results raised immediate questions about whether a chancellor can govern effectively when voters have twice, in a single evening, withheld their confidence. Yet Merz chose not to interpret the verdict as a reason to change course — a posture that places him at the intersection of conviction and vulnerability, where many democratic leaders h