Coming off the Lower Saxony municipals, editors opened on Friedrich Merz's fight for survival. Bild, Welt and merkur.de reported a leaked plan to convene the CDU presidium on Sunday election night for an indirect confidence question, offering resignation if an immediate successor was available, with Dobrindt, Söder and Wüst floated and leading CDU figures publicly rallying behind him.
By midday the crisis was reframed through record fuel prices, over three euros in Berlin. At the BGA business day Merz promised relief and said “we must act,” without naming instruments, as papers debated a price cap and quoted anger from Söder to Schwesig.
In the evening Merz cancelled his trip to the UN General Debate, citing required presence in Berlin, cementing Sunday's state votes as a verdict on his chancellorship.