# Merz Faces Mounting Pressure as AfD Momentum Builds Ahead of Berlin Vote > Chancellor Friedrich Merz is under growing scrutiny after his CDU lost roughly half its support to the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt, with elections in Berlin and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania this weekend set to test whether the far right's momentum can be contained and whether Merz himself can hold onto his authority. - Source: Berlin Today - Canonical URL: https://berlintoday.eu/article/merz-faces-mounting-pressure-as-afd-momentum-builds-ahead-of-berlin-vote - Author: Doug Brown - Section: Politics - Published: 2026-09-18T15:07:05.558Z - Updated: 2026-09-18T15:07:05.558Z - Tags: Germany, Friedrich Merz, AfD, CDU, Berlin, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, election, far right --- Chancellor Friedrich Merz is facing what commentators in Berlin are increasingly describing as a crisis of authority, as the far right Alternative for Germany rides a wave of momentum built largely on public anger over immigration. The pressure has raised a question that would have seemed far fetched a year ago: whether Merz could be pushed out of the chancellorship before his term is up. The immediate trigger was the AfD's landslide win in Saxony-Anhalt, where the party posted its strongest state election result yet while Merz's Christian Democratic Union saw its own support roughly cut in half. Immigration concerns were widely seen as the decisive factor driving voters toward the AfD in that contest. ## Two More Tests This Weekend Merz's party now faces fresh elections in Berlin and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, both scheduled for the same weekend. The two contests present very different challenges. In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, an eastern state where the AfD already runs strong and the CDU has historically struggled, the party faces a tougher fight against an incumbent center left governor than it did in Saxony-Anhalt. In Berlin, by contrast, the AfD is expected to gain ground but has no realistic path to actually taking power in the capital. Even a strong AfD showing without an outright win in either state would still add to the narrative of unstoppable momentum that has built around the party since its Saxony-Anhalt breakthrough, keeping pressure on Merz regardless of the precise seat counts. ## The Firewall Debate Intensifies As the AfD racks up regional wins, the long running debate inside the CDU over how strictly to maintain its firewall against cooperating with the party is becoming harder to contain. Some CDU figures have begun openly questioning whether the party should still refuse to accept parliamentary majorities that happen to depend on AfD votes, even if no formal coalition or deal is involved, a shift in tone that would have been unthinkable within the party only recently. That internal friction adds another layer of pressure on Merz, who has publicly insisted the firewall will hold even as members of his own party signal growing unease with a strategy that has so far failed to slow the AfD's rise. ## Why It Matters Whether or not Merz ultimately survives the political turbulence, the pattern emerging in Germany is clear: each new regional election is being read less as a local contest and more as a referendum on his leadership and on the durability of the firewall strategy itself. A continued run of AfD gains would likely accelerate calls from within his own party to reconsider that approach, while a weaker than expected AfD showing in Berlin or Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania could buy Merz some breathing room. Either way, the weekend's votes are shaping up as an early indicator of whether Saxony-Anhalt was a uniquely favorable result for the AfD or the start of a broader national shift that Merz's government is not yet equipped to reverse. --- Originally published by Berlin Today. Free to cite with attribution and a link to https://berlintoday.eu/article/merz-faces-mounting-pressure-as-afd-momentum-builds-ahead-of-berlin-vote.