anti-immigration party wins a second German state election, Christian Dems lose all seats | Eastern NC Now

Germany's anti-immigration populist nationalist party, the Alternativ fur Deutschland (AfD) has won a second state election, as results have been announced in the state election for the state of Mecklenburg - Lower Pomerania.  They have also almost doubled their vote in the other German state voting Sunday, the left-leaning state of Berlin.

The lead party in the national governing coalition, the center-right Christian Democrats (CDU) did not do so well.  In Mecklenburg, the state where Angela Merkel got her start in politics, the CDU failed to cross the threshold to win seats and therefore lost all of their seats.  They also lost over a third of their vote share and seats in Berlin, where the CDU had been the lead party in the state's governing coalition.  It was the first time since the party was founded that it has failed to win seats in any German state election.  This came two days after party leader Friedrich Merz called Germany "a country of immigration."

In Mecklenburg, the AfD campaigned on closing the state's reception centers for migrants and turning the buildings into departure centers to  assist in re-migration (deportation) of illegal aliens, and setting up a new state police unit to locate and apprehend illegal aliens subject to deportation.

https://rmx.news/article/germany-afd-proposes-deportation-police-before-regional-election-in-mecklenburg-vorpommern/

Election results in Mecklenburg gave the AfD 38.29% of the vote, up from 16.7% in the last state election, more than doubling their vote.  The CDU vote collapsed to 4.88%, down from 9.9% from the prior election.

The main parties of the left in Mecklenburg also lost vote share and seats.  The Social Democrats received 35.45%, down from 39.6% last election.  The Left Party, the former East German Communist Party , received 6.55%, down from 9.0% in the prior election.  The Green Party vote decreased slightly to 5.67%

AfD was the only party in the election to gain vote share.  All others declined.

Unfortunately, the new anti-immigration populist party of the left, the BSW, narrowly failed to win seats in either Mecklenburg or Berlin.   It is the BSW that is negotiating with AfD on forming a state government in Saxony-Anhalt.

For the CDU, this disaster of being completely frozen out of a state landtag (parliament) following their major losses in Saxony-Anhalt and Berlin, is likely to increase calls for replacing party leader and federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz.  Merz has been a key in pushing the CDU to demand a "firewall" to block the AfD from government at any level. Of the two leading candidates to replace Merz, one wants to end the firewall while the other wants to ban the AfD.  Banning a major party is totalitarian politics - if you can't beat them,  ban them.

Merz talked tough on illegal immigration in the last national election, but by forming a coalition with the center-left Social Democrats, he has been unable to deliver.  He promised his leadership would halve the vote for the AfD but instead has halved the vote for his own party while that of the AfD has doubled.

Five of Germany's states have voted in state elections scattered over 2026, but in only one of those has the CDU performed well.  The AfD has seen massive increases in all five.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/germanys-merz-rocked-election-disaster-surging-afd-momentum-closes-second-state-victory

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/09/afd-party-doubles-vote-another-state-germany-will/

https://rmx.news/article/germany-afd-roars-into-first-but-cdu-looks-set-to-crash-out-of-parliament-for-the-first-time-ever/

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/09/21/merz-cdu-suffers-total-wipeout-in-state-election/

The State of Berlin includes both the city of Berlin and some additional territory surrounding it.  It was created after the reunification of Germany with the merger of the old East Berlin and West Berlin. After serving for centuries as the capital of the Kingdom of Prussia, it became the capital of united Germany in 1871, although it lost that status for several decades after World War II when Germany was divided into East and West.

The State of Mecklenburg - Lower Pomerania was created after World War II from the former Grand Duchies of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz and the former Prussian province of Lower Pomerania, which is also known as Western Pomerania.