The CDU after the state election: The Merz problem, and the problem behind it

The CDU has been cut in half in Saxony-Anhalt, and the party founded by Konrad Adenauer, Helmut Kohl and Angela Merkel now looks defeated and demoralized. In September 2026, it won less than 18% in the state, half its result from the previous election.

The result also deepens the pressure on Friedrich Merz. His standing has suffered not only in the polls. He is losing elections and authority, while his reform efforts appear, above all, exhausting. The article argues that Merz’s CDU does not currently offer a compelling project or a fascinating political story.

That raises a more fundamental question: what is the CDU, and where is it going? In a difficult moment, the article suggests, the party may need to return to its beginnings. Only weeks after Nazi Germany was defeated by the Allies in May 1945, a group of Germans created a new political formation. They called it the Union rather than simply a party because they wanted to bring together Catholics and Protestants, northern and southern Germany, and social, liberal and conservative forces.

The founding appeal appeared in June 1945 as a legacy of “fighters of genuine democratic conviction.” Today, the article says, the party cannot rely on its firewall against the AfD alone. It must find another way to confront nationalists, with greater force and volume, while confronting the identity crisis exposed by the defeat in Saxony-Anhalt.

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fighters of genuine democratic conviction