Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged the Christian Democratic Union to maintain the unifying role of popular parties after the party's poor performance in the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania elections, Reuters reported.
On September 20, the Alternative for Germany won 38.2 percent of the vote, the Social Democratic Party of Germany received 35.5 percent, and the CDU remained with 4.9 percent. For the first time in modern German history, the party failed to enter a state parliament.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz described the result for the CDU as “catastrophic“.
A day after the vote, Merkel spoke in the Bundestag at the opening of the exhibition “Kokoshkas Adenauer. Warhols Brand“. She made a reference to the first Federal Chancellor of Germany, Konrad Adenauer, and said: “For him it was clear, bridges must be built. And at the same time, it automatically followed from this who you cannot build bridges with“.
The exhibition in the German parliament is dedicated to the relationship between art and politics and shows portraits of Konrad Adenauer by Oskar Kokoschka and Willy Brand by Andy Warhol.
Sources: Reuters, Deutscher Bundestag, Welt