In two German state elections held on a single Sunday, Friedrich Merz's CDU suffered losses that carry the weight of historical rupture — failing, for the first time ever, to enter parliament in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, and shedding nearly a third of its support in Berlin. What rose to fill the vacuum was not a rival mainstream force but the political extremes: the far-right AfD surging to 38% in the northeast, the left-wing Left Party doubling its share across both states. Germany, long a symbol of postwar democratic stability, is now navigating a moment in which the parties governing t