Weak poll numbers, strong AfD, Merz under pressure: The CDU is fighting for its future
deutschlandfunk.de/cdu-krise-volkspartei-merz-afd-zukunft-100.html
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CDU confronts crisis and AfD challenge over futureWeak polling, election defeats and rising AfD support intensify disputes over the CDU’s direction and identity.
Key FactsOct 12, 2026 · Reading time: ~45 sec.
Summary created with AI assistance · Source: deutschlandfunk.de
Summary created with AI assistance · Source: deutschlandfunk.de
- Defeats in Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania show that the CDU increasingly struggles to unite currents and reach voters.
- Political scientist Karl-Rudolf Korte says confidence in the CDU’s capacity to act is fading, while it reaches the center less effectively.
- The CDU peaked at nearly 800,000 members in the early 1990s; its membership has since more than halved.
- The party leadership rules out cooperation with the AfD, while parts of the CDU discuss alternative models.
That things would get better, that everyone would also benefit. And that is gone. That has vanished.— Karl-Rudolf Korte, political scientist, commenting on the CDU's credibility loss and the absence of a positive future promise
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German centre-right political party
political party in Northern Ireland
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