After state elections: can Merz keep his job?

The chancellor’s tactics could even pay off, writes Bence Bauer, director of the German-Hungarian Institute for European Cooperation, a think tank founded by the Orbán government, in Index:

“After describing Sunday’s results as a disaster, he immediately stressed that he would stick to the same course as before. The question is, who believes the chancellor at this point? After all, he has promised major steps on several occasions without any serious decisions ever being taken. Why should it be any different this time? He is clearly playing for time. … Perhaps he can take some small consolation in the fact that it will not be easy to find a successor who, given the CDU’s disastrous results, is prepared to board the sinking ship. That might even save his chancellorship, at least for the time being.”