The Mecklenburg-Prepomerania election is this coming Sunday, Sept. 20. There are bitter complaints among Christian Democrats about what they view as a “brutal” election campaign by current Mecklenburg-Prepomerania’s Minister President Manuela Schwesig (SPD) to buffer votes at the expense of their CDU votes to an extent that the CDU—rated at 7 percent—must fear getting enough votes to even pass the 5-percent threshold for seats in the parliament. Schwesig argues that everything else is secondary to her intent to stop the rise of the AfD, and defeat it even at a miniscule margin. That has certain repercussions for the federal government coalition of Christian Democrats and Social Democrats, enhancing the crisis of the CDU and adding to Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s problems.

A similar fate to the one of the CDU is threatened to the Greens, which party also has difficulties to pass the 5-percent threshold. If they fail too, and the BSE, rated at 4 percent, fails as well, this would leave the newly elected state parliament with only three parties: SPD, AfD and Linke (rated with 9 percent)—with the prospect of an SPD-Linke government.