Merz Cancels UN Trip as AfD Surge Deepens CDU Crisis Before 2 State Votes

2 articles · Updated · CBS New York · Sep 18

Friedrich Merz canceled a planned UN trip to New York as pressure mounted after the AfD's state-election breakthrough in Saxony-Anhalt and a sharp slide in support for his CDU.
3 million people were unemployed in Germany in August, up 36,000 from a year earlier, underscoring why voters have grown disillusioned with Merz's delayed tax and economic reforms.
91% of AfD supporters in Saxony-Anhalt feared a new influx of foreigners, and 85% said immigration was changing German society too much, showing how migration concerns are driving the far-right surge.
Sunday's 2 state elections in Berlin and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania could intensify calls for change inside the CDU, even as eight state leaders publicly backed Merz this week.
Germany can remove a chancellor only through a constructive no-confidence vote, used just once in 1982, making an immediate ouster unlikely but leaving Merz's authority under sustained scrutiny.