In the aftermath of historic electoral defeats, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz finds himself at a crossroads familiar to leaders across the democratic world — the moment when a governing mandate begins to dissolve not through scandal but through accumulated disillusionment. The CDU's expulsion from a state parliament for the first time in its history, and the AfD's sweeping gains across multiple regions, signal something deeper than a midterm correction: a realignment of political gravity in Europe's largest democracy. Merz insists the coalition will hold, but history suggests that governmen