Ozdemir warns Merz coalition it is 'five to twelve' as CDU unease grows

Baden-Wuerttemberg state premier Cem Ozdemir of the Greens has urged Chancellor Friedrich Merz's conservative-Social Democrat government to show more discipline. Democracy thrives on debate, but people can no longer stand "quarrels without results. And that is what we have in Berlin," he told Welt am Sonntag. "Now it really is five to twelve. The hourglass is running," he said, urging the coalition to speak with one voice and honor its agreements.

Ozdemir said he still believed Merz could turn the coalition into a genuine reform government. He also warned the CDU against chasing populists: "First voting with them, then tolerating them, then putting up with them, eventually forming a coalition," a path he said would end in self-dissolution.

Dennis Radtke, head of the CDU's labor wing CDA, also voiced concern. "This coalition must be able to act, and I don't want to give up believing in that," he told the Koelner Stadt-Anzeiger. The CDU leadership meets for a two-day retreat in Berlin starting Sunday to process recent election defeats; General Secretary Franziska Hoppermann played down hopes of quick fixes.