German Chancellor Merz's CDU fails to enter northeastern state parliament

BERLIN -- German Chancellor Friedrich Merz's Christian Democratic Union secured only 4.9 percent of the vote in the election of the northeastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, failing to enter the state parliament for the first time in post-war Germany, preliminary official results showed early Monday.

Falling short of the mandatory 5 percent threshold, the CDU saw its support drop by 8.4 percentage points from its result in 2021.

Earlier on Sunday, Merz called the results a "disaster" but vowed to carry forward reforms and rebuild confidence.

The far-right Alternative for Germany won the state election with 38.2 percent of the vote, followed by the Social Democratic Party with 35.5 percent.

The Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance also narrowly missed the threshold for parliamentary entry, securing 4.8 percent of the vote.