Chancellor acknowledges disastrous state election results but vow to push on is likely to further alienate voters, and his own party • Europe live – latest updates Friedrich Merz called it a “disaster”, and that was even before the full scale of the catastrophe for himself and his conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) came into view after Sunday’s state elections . In what one outlet called a “power move” , the German chancellor made a highly unusual televised speech just minutes after polls closed in the states of Berlin and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, attempting to get ahead of the narrative with a pledge to stay on and fight for his economic recovery programme . Continue reading...