The center-left party’s strategic pivot is likely to deepen Merz’s myriad challenges as questions mount over his ability to lead Germany’s relatively weak coalition government.

A member of Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party has broken rank to call for the chancellor’s resignation.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz doubled down Monday on pushing through unpopular reforms to Europe’s largest economy after a far-right party surged to a landslide victory in a regional election, with a very good chance of forming the first far-right state government since the Nazi era.

The far-right AfD's triumph in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt marks a defeat for German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and sends a warning to other European leaders battling the same mixture of slow growth and ​disillusion with mainstream politics.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said his government will have to learn the lessons from an overwhelming victory by the far right in a state election that he said will alter the country’s politics.

The rise of the Alternative for Germany has forced Germany’s mainstream parties to work together in coalition to exclude the far right from power.

The state election result could lead to a debate over the future of the firewall that has kept the Alternative for Germany out of power.

Deeply shocked' by the far right's regional victory on Sunday, the chancellor now has to contend with his coalition partner, the Social Democratic Party, which wants to renegotiate pension reform. For its part,

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Lead Stories says: SynthID Does a viral image actually prove that German Chancellor Friedrich Merz posed on camera with Jeffrey Epstein? No, that's not true: The earliest versions of the ...