German Chancellor Friedrich Merz was scheduled to bask in the adulation of his peers next week, receiving the Henry A. Kissinger Prize in New York and then addressing the United Nations General Assembly. Instead, he will be yelled at by activists in his own party after he was forced to cancel the trip to fight for his political survival.

• The Alternative für Deutschland beat Merz’s Christian Democratic Union in state elections in Saxony-Anhalt on September 6. The victory shook German politics and marked a major failure for Merz personally, who had promised to halve support for the AfD.
• Then on Monday, the AfD reached 30 percent support in a nationwide poll for the first time ever, soundly beating the cdu’s 20 percent support.
• This coming Sunday, the cdu could be wiped out in state elections in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. In 2006, it was the largest party in the state, with 30 percent support; now it is polling around 7 percent. If fewer than 5 percent of voters cast a ballot for the cdu, the party will fail to reach the minimum threshold and will have zero seats in the state legislature.

It’s an unprecedented crisis for the cdu, and many want Merz out.

Merz also faces a threat from his coalition partners. The Social Democrats might reverse course on pension reform, the only significant reform the coalition has managed to agree on. This would be a second crisis within the cdu.

• But it’s hard to fire a chancellor under Germany’s constitution. The cdu could replace Merz as leader of the party, but that won’t automatically remove him as leader of the country. That can only happen if a majority in the legislature agrees on a replacement.

The Bible says a strongman will soon take power, and it tells us how. A key scripture is Daniel 11:21, which says the German people “shall not give” this coming leader “the honour of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.”

• “This man doesn’t come to power the honorable way—by being voted into office,” Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry wrote in November 2002. “He takes it dishonorably! He will work behind the scenes and come to power by flatteries—not votes!”

Germany’s current political climate is full of opportunities for this to happen. He could come to power on the EU level or the German level. The discontent with Merz shows that a vacancy could open quickly.

• With the AfD setting new records for popularity, none of Germany’s mainstream leaders are looking forward to any election, local or national, so other political machinations could bring in a new leader. This leader could arrive quickly.

Our free booklet A Strong German Leader Is Imminent explains what the Bible says about this man.