To Saxony-Anhalt | Demands for Merz to resign

Chancellor Friedrich Merz is being harshly criticized after his election defeat in Saxony-Anhalt. Photo: AFP/RALF HIRSCHBERGER The consequences of the election debacle in Saxony-Anhalt are becoming increasingly explosive for the Federal Chancellor. After the CDU's heavy defeat, individuals in or around the CDU openly called for his resignation against the Chancellor for the first time. Three voices are calling for a change at the top of the federal government and consider Merz unsuitable as chancellor.

The demand from Tino Schomann, the deputy CDU state chairman in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, is particularly explosive. Merz has to “get off the chair and someone else has to get up,” Schomann told the German Press Agency. The Chancellor is not empathetic, he is no longer believed and he makes technical errors that are not worthy of a head of government. Schomann is not calling for a new election, but rather a change within the Union. He named Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul and Bundestag President Julia Klöckner as well as Markus Söder and Alexander Dobrindt from the CSU as possible successors.

The well-known publicist Michel Friedman also explained in a top-level interview with “Spiegel” that he considered Merz unsuitable for the Chancellery. Friedman resigned from the CDU in protest at the beginning of 2025 after the Union, together with the AfD, received a majority in a migration policy proposal in the Bundestag. Between 1994 and 1996 Friedman was a member of the CDU's federal executive committee. In his opinion, Merz does not meet the requirements that should be placed on a Federal Chancellor: "I don't think this man meets the job description of a Federal Chancellor." Friedman sees deficits in particular when it comes to empathy and the ability to make compromises. At the same time, he criticizes the CDU for being rightly punished under Merz.

»Merz completely blew it. He has to go. He has to resign.”

Billionaire Carsten Maschmeyer, who is close to the CDU, goes even further. In the ARD program “Maischberger,” which will be broadcast this Wednesday, he expressly calls for the Chancellor to resign: “Merz completely blew it. He has to go. He has to resign." The entrepreneur had supported the CDU with a large donation at the beginning of the year and is completely disappointed in Merz: "It now turns out that he wanted to become chancellor for the wrong reason. That was Ego and Merkel showing that I am now Chancellor.

Maschmeyer also criticized the Chancellor's leadership style: "He doesn't take people along emotionally. He is aloof, didactic, a know-it-all." And, he hears, "arrogant from everyone who has to do with him." Merz “steered the ship incorrectly. He has to get off the command bridge." He named Hendrik Wüst, Daniel Günther and Markus Söder as possible successors: "These are great officers on the ship: Wüst, Günther, Söder."

There is still no public demand among the CDU leadership for the Chancellor to step down. CDU General Secretary Franziska Hoppermann supported Merz and pointed out that the government must continue its reform course.

Merz himself had already made it clear immediately after the election that he did not want to resign. "Giving up is not an option for me," he said. At the same time, he admitted mistakes. The government did not communicate its reforms sufficiently. There needs to be a better explanation of why changes are necessary and what goal they serve. According to a Forsa survey for RTL and N-TV, 67 percent of respondents consider Friedrich Merz to be incompetent and a full 81 percent consider him untrustworthy.

The Chancellor also sticks to his line in the general debate in the Bundestag. He expressly takes responsibility for the lack of communication of his policy, but does not announce a change of course. Reforms need a political “narrative,” said Merz. They are not just a question of numbers and economic indicators.

In doing so, Merz is trying to draw the consequences from the election results, especially on the communicative level. However, he does not question his basic political convictions - on the contrary: the reforms are necessary and must be implemented even faster.

This is in contrast to some of the previous criticism from the Union. Saxony's Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer called for a self-critical break after the election. The CDU should not simply return to everyday political life, but must deal with the reasons for the AfD's success. The Eastern CDU sharply criticizes the abolition of the so-called pension at 63 and is therefore against the federal government's policy. Kretschmer also criticized the firewall policy and implicitly declared it to be over.

The Schleswig-Holstein CDU regional association under Prime Minister Daniel Günther is also calling for a “fundamental and ruthless confrontation” with the defeat in Saxony-Anhalt and the underlying loss of trust among the population. Small corrections would not be enough. Günther represents the liberal and pragmatic Merkelesque wing of the party alongside Hendrik Wüst, the Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia and chairman of the regional association there. So both govern pragmatically with the Greens in their countries.

Wüst has so far held back after rumors about him as a “substitute chancellor” began circulating at the beginning of the summer. Both are considered critics of the Chancellor, but do not share the right-wing and conservative criticisms of the Eastern CDU. Wüst spoke out in favor of an audit of the AfD by a federal-state group.

"In our opinion, a personal exchange between the CDU Rhineland-Palatinate parliamentary group and you requires a minimum level of mutual trust and appreciation, which unfortunately does not exist due to the current situation."

Gordon Schnieder, CDU state leader in Rhineland-Palatinate, also emphasized the political responsibility of those in power for the situation in Saxony-Anhalt. Whoever governs must ensure that it works. The CDU-Rhineland-Palatinate stood behind the Chancellor's policies for a long time and tried to ensure calm and stability in the Christian-democratic orchestra, in view of the trench warfare of the business-oriented and right wing in the Union parliamentary group.

But after Merz dismissed Transport Minister Patrick Schnieder, who comes from Rhineland-Palatinate, the mood in the regional association changed completely. The Rhineland-Palatinate CDU parliamentary group recently confirmed the cancellation of a meeting with Merz. Christoph Gensch, chairman of the CDU state parliamentary group in Rhineland-Palatinate, explained in a letter to Merz in the summer: "In our opinion, a personal exchange between the CDU state parliamentary group in Rhineland-Palatinate and you requires a minimum level of mutual trust and appreciation, which unfortunately does not exist due to the current situation."

Parallel to the personnel debate, the dispute within the coalition over reform policy is intensifying. Following the election results in Saxony-Anhalt, the SPD in particular is calling for changes to the federal government's plans.

Juso boss Philipp Türmer described the election as a reckoning with the federal government and in particular with its reform course. The SPD must make a U-turn. Reforms should no longer be primarily associated with cuts, but rather should make the social system fairer. A close examination of the projects is also announced within the SPD parliamentary group.

The parliamentary managing director of the SPD parliamentary group, Dirk Wiese, also questioned aspects of the planned pension and care reforms. The parliamentary deliberations must therefore be taken particularly seriously given the uncertainty of many people: "It is crucial that these social reforms are fair and that they do not further unsettle people."

The Prime Minister of Saarland, Anke Rehlinger (SPD), is now calling for a care cost cap, which would limit the care-related personal contribution in the nursing home to 1,500 euros. Reforms must improve people's lives, argues Rehlinger.

"That's why we expect the ministries that are now responsible - for example Bärbel Bas for the pension issue - to present the draft laws now, as they were jointly agreed upon in the coalition committee."

In the Union, however, there is growing dissatisfaction with the social democratic demands for correction. Parliamentary group leader Thorsten Frei warns against questioning jointly decided projects again shortly afterwards. CDU General Secretary Hoppermann is particularly demanding that Labor Minister Bärbel Bas present the agreed draft laws.

For Merz, this means that the personnel debate will be much tougher from now on - this marks the official start of the dispute over his successor. The decisive factor is likely to be whether further election defeats on September 20th in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Berlin will increase the circle of his critics and whether front-line politicians will join the calls for his resignation. And at the same time, finding a compromise in the government is becoming significantly more difficult, as both coalition partners have drawn different conclusions from the election debacle in Saxony-Anhalt.

The Union wants to implement the reforms as quickly as possible because it sees them as their salvation, and the SPD sees the social reforms as one of the main reasons for the discontent in the country and therefore wants to make improvements in new negotiations in view of the state elections in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Berlin on September 20th. Meanwhile, the right wing of the Union is likely to be happy about further complications in the coalition, as it sees cooperation with the SPD as harmful for the Union and is less afraid of possible cooperation with the AfD, as the critics from the SPD do. The government and especially Friedrich Merz are facing extremely difficult times. With agencies.

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