ZYTHI WORLD ANALYSIS

  Let me say it again, because the first time I wrote it down I didn’t believe it myself. The Christian Democrats got less than five percent. Not five percent less than last time. Less than five percent, full stop. The CDU. Adenauer’s party, Kohl’s party, the party that built this country twice over and was the wall you leaned against for seventy years whether you voted for them or not. In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania they didn’t just lose. They got erased. Then I watched the press conference, and that’s what has been sitting in my chest for three days. Not the number itself, and not even the AfD at 28 percent, though God knows that should keep you up at night. It’s that nobody quit. Nobody pushed their chair back. Nobody looked into a camera and said, “We have lost the consent of the people who built this country, and we need to understand why.” Merz called it “a severe blow” and said the repercussions would be felt for a long time. Then he went back to his desk and back to work ...