German Chancellor Friedrich Merz finds his coalition government hanging by a thread after renewed attempts to distance his party from Alternative für Deutschland

Germany's weakest and most hapless Chancellor can find no way out of the corner into which he has painted himself.

Two weeks ago, I wrote that Chancellor Friedrich Merz and the rest of the Union party leadership were on the brink of retiring to a secret meeting in Berlin-Grunewald to discuss The Way Forward.

Rumour held that CDU grandees wanted to hash out a new strategy for dealing with Alternative für Deutschland, as their firewall has proven to be an utter failure and basically the worst way imaginable to manage the threat of the populist right. Various CDU politicians in East Germany together with some éminences grises had urged this step after another round of grim polling showed the AfD on the brink of winning outright majorities in Sachsen-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern next year.

Merz spent the days leading up to the summit distancing himself from and denouncing the AfD, and the commentariat developed various theories to explain what the man might possibly be doing. One such theory held that Merz was just making a big show of hating on the AfD ahead of announcing a scheme to relax firewall rules at the state level. Disaster awaits Merz’s party, particularly in the East, if the CDU can’t manoeuvre out of the extremely retarded corner into which they’ve painted themselves. At the same time, the Social Democrats will leave the coalition if they think the Union is attempting to thaw relations with the AfD. So, some posited that Merz might be engaging in misdirection – aiming to confuse the Social Democrats with the usual anti-AfD rhetoric on the one hand, while making space for the CDU to cooperate at the state level and however minimally with the Evil Hitler Nazi Fascists on the other hand.

As strategies go, that one sounded pretty dumb, but still it was an overestimation of our Pigeon Chancellor, who is without question the most politically incapable person ever to steer the Federal Republic.