Share :

Download PDF :

Politico (29 July 2026)

Marc Felix Serrao

Talk of replacing the chancellor is growing as his party braces for difficult elections in September.

In normal times, Germany’s parliamentary summer recess is when top politicians get to exhale, and journalists are left to forage for so-called Sommerloch stories: summer-fillers about runaway animals and mysterious predators whose menace tends to fade on closer inspection. 

No such luck in 2026. Chancellor Friedrich Merz might wish the growing threat to his leadership were an overblown summer tale. But in Berlin, the beast is real enough.

Click for more