The 2026 Merz government crisis (in German-language reporting Kanzlerkrise or Kanzlerdämmerung) is an ongoing political crisis surrounding German chancellor Friedrich Merz, his Christian Democratic Union (CDU), and the grand coalition of the CDU/CSU (Union) parties and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) that took office in May 2025.
In July 2026, a personnel scandal involving Union parliamentary leader Jens Spahn and a poorly received cabinet reshuffle produced the first open talk of replacing Merz only 14 months into his chancellorship. The second and more severe phase followed the 2026 Saxony-Anhalt state election on 6 September, in which the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) won 43.8% of the party-list vote—the strongest result for any party in the state since German reunification—while the CDU fell to 17.2%, its worst result there since the state was reconstituted, and lost every constituency seat.
By September 2026, Merz's personal approval ratings had reached historic lows. An INSA survey for Bild found that 14% of respondents regarded him as the right chancellor and 78% did not, including a majority of Union voters. National polls placed the AfD first, at around 28–29%, with the Union near 20%. Commentators and some CDU officials discussed a Kanzlertausch (chancellor swap) in favour of North Rhine-Westphalia minister-president Hendrik Wüst or Bavarian minister-president Markus Söder, a possible minority government, or the collapse of the coalition.
The 20 September state elections in Berlin and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern saw more losses for the CDU, a situation that Merz described as a "disaster."German Chancellor Merz calls state election a 'disaster' for his party but vows to stay on - https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvwyz29n0nn2o In Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, support for the CDU dropped from an already weak 13% (in 2021) to under the electoral threshold of 5%, meaning the party will not enter the Landtag for the first time since the reunification of Germany. Merz nonetheless vowed to remain chancellor and party leader.
Background Formation of the Merz cabinet The 2025 German federal election on 23 February 2025, called after the collapse of the Scholz cabinet in the 2024 German government crisis, returned the CDU/CSU as the largest group with 28.5 per cent of the vote and 208 of 630 Bundestag seats. The AfD finished second with 20.8 per cent and 152 seats, its best federal result to that date. The SPD fell to 16.4 per cent and 120 seats.
Because the Union and the SPD together held 328 seats—a narrow majority of 12—and because all mainstream parties maintained a Brandmauer ("firewall") against coalition with the AfD, the two sides negotiated a fifth postwar black–red coalition. The agreement was signed on 5 May 2025. On 6 May Merz failed on the first Bundestag ballot, receiving 310 votes against the 316 required for an absolute majority, an unprecedented first-round defeat for a designated chancellor. He was elected on the second ballot the same day with 325 votes and appointed by President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Lars Klingbeil of the SPD became vice-chancellor.
Merz entered office promising a Wirtschaftswende ("economic turnaround") from Germany's economic crisis, and said he intended to reduce support for the AfD. Sixteen months later the AfD led national polls and the governing parties' combined support had fallen well below their 2025 election share.
Reform agenda A coalition committee meeting on 1–2 July 2026 endorsed a package intended to stabilise social-insurance systems and revive growth. It included implementation of the 33 recommendations of a government pensions commission (raising the statutory retirement age in line with life expectancy beyond 67 for cohorts born from 1965, curbing early-retirement incentives, and introducing a funded component), healthcare changes, abolition of telephone sick notes, and an income tax reform including a higher top rate. Merz claimed that the measures had to be legislated by the end of 2026. The package was unpopular with large parts of the electorate and, after the Saxony-Anhalt defeat, with sections of the SPD, which called for the pension, care and 2027-budget plans to be reopened.
Summer personnel crisis Spahn surrogacy controversy On 14 July 2026, Bild reported that Jens Spahn (leader of the CDU/CSU Bundestag group since May 2025) and his husband had become parents through a surrogate in the United States. Commercial surrogacy is prohibited in Germany and had long been opposed by the CDU, including by Spahn himself. The disclosure produced a conservative backlash inside the Union. Spahn resigned as parliamentary leader on 18 July 2026.
Cabinet reshuffle Merz used the vacancy to rearrange party and government posts. On 29 July President Steinmeier appointed: Nina Warken (previously health minister) as head of the Federal Chancellery, succeeding Thorsten Frei; Carsten Linnemann (previously CDU secretary-general) as federal health minister; Steffen Bilger as federal transport minister, succeeding Patrick Schnieder.
The transport minister appointment was chaotic: Merz informed Schnieder of his intended dismissal while Schnieder was on holiday; the first designated successor, Fritz Güntzler, accepted and then withdrew; Schnieder then asked to be dismissed to end what he called an "undignified situation". Health state secretary Tino Sorge publicly criticised Merz for announcing Sorge's removal to party bodies and the press before speaking to him. The new ministers were not sworn in by the Bundestag until after the summer recess. On same day, the Union parliamentary group elected Thorsten Frei as Spahn's successor by 170 votes of 185 members present (91.9 per cent). Franziska Hoppermann succeeded Linnemann as CDU secretary-general. Politico described the combined Spahn and reshuffle affairs as "the gravest crisis of [Merz's] chancellorship" to that point and reported that replacement of the chancellor was no longer taboo in private conversation among Union legislators, though most officials postponed any move until after the September state elections.
Poor state election performance Saxony-Anhalt
The state election in Saxony-Anhalt on 6 September 2026 was widely treated as the first electoral test of the Merz government in eastern Germany, where the AfD had already become the strongest party in several 2024 contests.
In the election, the AfD won 38 of 41 constituencies; The Left won the other three. The CDU, which had won 40 of 41 constituencies in 2021 and had led every state government in Saxony-Anhalt since 2002, won no constituencies. An exit poll indicated that only about 9 per cent of Saxony-Anhalt voters approved of Merz's performance as chancellor.
In the aftermath, Minister-President Sven Schulze (CDU) conceded that his party no longer had a mandate to govern and announced that he would not seek re-election as state party leader; he later won a contest for the CDU Landtag group leadership. AfD lead candidate Ulrich Siegmund said he would stand for minister-president if he could assemble a stable majority and ruled out a minority cabinet. The BSW said it would support neither Siegmund nor Schulze; its federal leader Amira Mohamed Ali floated a non-partisan minister-president governing with shifting majorities.
At a press conference in Berlin on 7 September, Merz called the Saxony-Anhalt result "the worst election defeat the CDU has suffered in years—or even decades" and said the party had been shaken "to its very foundations". He acknowledged that "my persona, too, has been a recurring topic in this election campaign", promised to communicate reforms more clearly, and insisted that "giving up is not an option" and that the reform course would continue.
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
The state election in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern held on 20 September 2026 was treated as the next electoral test of the Merz government after the elections in Saxony-Anhalt. In this election, the CDU suffered the worst election result since its founding, missing the 5% voter threshold and winning zero seats in the Landtag.
As the first projections arrived, Merz convened the CDU presidium in Berlin, calling the result a "disaster" that could not be "sugar-coated", but that he would remain party chairman and chancellor and continue the reform programme. CDU secretary-general Franziska Hoppermann described the mood in the presidium as "very tense and very serious".
In an post-election interview with ZDF, AfD chairwoman Alice Weidel claimed the status of Volkspartei for the AfD and also claimed that her party was replacing the CDU.
Berlin
The CDU had governed Berlin with the SPD since 2023; governing mayor Kai Wegner did not stand as lead candidate. Instead, finance senator Stefan Evers headed the CDU list.
The Left, led by Elif Eralp, finished first with 25.7%, ahead of the CDU on 18.8%. The incumbent CDU–SPD city coalition lost its majority. Possible majorities include Left–Green–SPD or CDU–Green–SPD.
Federal escalation Coalition rift SPD leaders, including secretary-general Tim Klüssendorf, demanded talks on softening pension and care reforms, revisiting the 2027 federal budget, and reopening debate on inheritance and wealth taxation. Merz spoke by telephone on 8 September with Klingbeil and labour minister Bärbel Bas. Analysts said the dispute could delay or derail the July package. Some Union legislators, including Christian von Stetten of the parliamentary Mittelstand circle, urged Merz to dismiss Bas for blocking reforms—a step that would have broken the coalition. A critical group of Union MPs was reported to be unwilling to vote for the 2027 budget in its existing form.
Following the results of the September state elections, SPD leaders, including Klingbeil and Bas, announced their intent to "revise" the planned reforms, while remaining committed to the coalition with the Union. Klingbeil argued: "If the citizens of our country perceive reforms as a threat to their lives that leads only to a worsening of their situation, then it is not just our communication that needs to improve, but, in some instances, the substance of the reform itself." Accordingly, SPD re-opened negotiations and threatened to block the reforms.
Bundestag clash and Trump call During the 2027-budget debate on 9 September, Merz accused the AfD of advancing Russian interests and said its "remigration" programme was "nothing other than a synonym for ethnic cleansing based on origin and skin colour". AfD co-leader Alice Weidel told the chamber that Merz's "time was up". AfD chief whip Bernd Baumann replied that remigration meant only the lawful deportation of people with no right to remain. The AfD later said it would file a criminal complaint against Merz for defamatory insult.
On the same day, Merz postponed a scheduled telephone call with United States president Donald Trump, planned around the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks. Trump had written on Truth Social that "the Populist Party in Germany just had a really big night" because voters were "tired of the absolutely horrible Immigration rules", signing off "MGGA". A government spokesman declined to give a reason but recalled Merz's objection to foreign commentary on German elections.
Party-management disputes CDU Deputy CDU secretary-general Christina Stumpp publicly denied mid-week reports that Merz had asked her to resign. After several days of resistance she and Merz issued a joint statement on 11 September that she would leave office on 21 September, the day after the Berlin and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern elections; Merz proposed Thuringian MP Michael Hose as acting successor. German media treated the episode as evidence of eroded chancellor authority inside the CDU.