In a regional election in the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt, the far-right Alternative for Germany party, or AfD, won about 44% of the vote.
Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz is campaigning ahead of Sunday's election in the eastern state of Sachsen-Anhalt, where his Christian Democrats (CDU) fear losing to the far-right AfD party for the first time.
Family Minister Karin Prien wants to stop paying the Unterhaltsvorschuss once a child turns 16, after costs quadrupled in recent years. The SPD is already promising resistance — turning a line item in the family budget into a test of coalition unity and fiscal credibility.
The short version: Stefan Evers is now the man who has to clean up after Kai Wegner's resignation, a new Insa poll shows the Union narrowing the gap to the AfD but Merz's own ratings barely moving, and a Welt analysis argues the AfD has stopped being a niche phenomenon. Together, they show why Berlin's local leadership fight is really a preview of the CDU's national problem.
Kai Wegner has pulled out of running as the CDU's lead candidate for Berlin after mishandling a citywide power outage — and the fallout says as much about Merz's coalition as it does about Wegner.