Germany's Merz cancels UN trip as pressure mounts over elections at home

BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has canceled a trip to the U.N. General Assembly next week as he faces mounting pressure at home during a string of difficult state elections .

A government official, speaking on condition of anonymity because they couldn’t publicly discuss a trip that hadn’t been announced officially, said Wednesday that Merz won't travel to New York as originally planned because “his presence is required in Berlin.” Merz had been expected to speak at the General Assembly next Wednesday.

There was no word on why his presence in Germany was required. But speculation has mounted that Merz's job is in danger following a stinging defeat for his center-right party by the far-right Alternative for Germany party in an election Sept. 6 in the eastern region of Saxony-Anhalt. That damaged the already unpopular chancellor's authority as he tries to push through reforms to Germany's sluggish economy.

Two more regional elections follow on Sunday: one in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, another largely rural eastern state, and the other in Berlin, the capital.

The AfD is expected to make significant gains in both, though it has no realistic path to power in Berlin and faces a much stronger challenge from the current center-left governor in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania than it did from Merz's party in Saxony-Anhalt.

The prospects for Merz’s center-right Christian Democratic Union are bleaker, 16 months after the 70-year-old became Germany’s leader. It could lose the mayor’s office in Berlin that it has held since 2023 and, if things go very badly, fail for the first time to win seats in a state legislature anywhere by falling below 5% of the vote in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, a region where it was already weak.