German Chancellor Friedrich Merz did not soften it. "We cannot sugar coat the result in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern," he told reporters on Sunday night. "It is a disaster."

The numbers back him up. With all precincts counted, ARD projections put Merz's Christian Democratic Union on just 4.9% in the north-eastern state — below the 5% threshold needed to enter parliament. The party's previous worst state result was 9% in Bremen in 1951, the only other time it fell into single digits. Failing to clear the bar would be the first time the CDU has been shut out of a state legislature anywhere in Germany. (BBC, RNZ)

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) won the state with 38.3%, ahead of the Social Democrats on 35.4% — the first time in 28 years that the SPD has not been the strongest party there. The Left took 6.5%, the Greens 5.7%, and the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance 4.8%, also below the threshold. (Tagesschau, Xinhua)

Winning votes is not the same as winning power. The AfD fell far short of a majority, and every other party in the state has ruled out governing with it. That leaves the SPD's Manuela Schwesig — who clawed back a double-digit polling deficit in the closing weeks — looking at a red-red-green coalition with the Left and Greens, or a minority government of the kind already running in Thuringia and Saxony. (Tagesschau)

The same night, Berlin delivered a mirror image. The Left won 25.6% — a record for the party, beating the 22.6% it scored as the PDS in 2001 — with lead candidate Elif Eralp telling supporters that "love and justice won over hate." The CDU came second on 19.1% and stands to lose the city's governing mayor's office. The AfD rose to 16.1% from 9.1% in 2023, but remains locked out of coalition talks. (Tagesschau, RNZ)

Merz pledged to stay on, insisting the answer is not "to go back to the good old days" but to push ahead with income-tax cuts, pension reform and deregulation. AfD co-leader Alice Weidel called him "strongly damaged" and said the CDU cannot continue with "a weak chancellor." (RNZ, BBC)

It is the CDU's second blow in two weeks. On 6 September the AfD finished ahead of the party in Saxony-Anhalt — the far-right's best chance yet at forming Germany's first regional government since World War II. (China Daily)