Merz admits German state election ‘disaster’, exit poll points to big gains for far right

Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservatives posted their worst-ever result in a German state election on Sunday, with exit polls showing his party with single-digit support in a northeastern Baltic coast region and trailing a far-left party in Berlin. The Christian Democratic Union won 5.5 per cent of the vote in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, according to an exit poll from broadcaster ARD, putting it dangerously close to a threshold required to enter the regional assembly. The