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‘We are prey’: discovery of seven women’s bodies fuels anger over femicide in South Africa

The discovery of the bodies of eight women around Johannesburg’s international airport, including five in the past week, has prompted an outpouring of fear, grief and anger over a lack of progress in tackling femicide. When Elizabeth “Tsontso” Moselakgomo did not return after going for a run on 9 September, her eight-year-old daughter alerted relatives, who contacted police. The 38-year-old’s body was found on Saturday and identified by relatives on Monday. The news of her disappearance had gone viral. Police said in a statement on Saturday that four women’s bodies had been found since 15 July in Kempton Park, across the highway from OR Tambo international airport. All were half-naked and with visible bruising. On Monday and Tuesday, two more bodies were found in the town of Olifantsfontein about 15 miles north of Kempton Park. On Tuesday, police said another woman’s body had been found 25 miles to the south-east, naked and decomposed. The acting police minister, Firoz Cachalia, said on Wednesday that another woman’s body found in Olifantsfontein on 7 September, was being added to the investigation. “In this country we are prey,” Sakane Mokoena posted on Instagram after confirmation of the death of her friend and fellow runner Moselakgomo. South Africa has one of the highest rates of femicide in the world. In the year to 31 March 2024, more than 27,600 people were murdered, 5,578 of them women, according to the latest police data. For years, women have called on the South African government to take gender-based violence seriously. After hundreds of women protested on the eve of the G20 summit in Johannesburg in November 2025, President Cyril Ramaphosa declared it a national crisis. However, the lack of a concrete plan or action has frustrated campaigners – and women keep being killed. The latest deaths are being investigated by specialist officers, who said on Saturday: “Women in and around Kempton Park are urged not to walk or run alone, particularly in isolated areas. They should avoid secluded spaces, remain vigilant and, where possible, travel or exercise in groups.” South African women responded with anger at the idea that they had to be responsible for their own safety, with many runners noting they already took precautions, such as sharing routes. “We are tired of being told to be vigilant when women are already doing everything possible to stay alive,” said the advocacy group Women For Change. “It should not take a missing woman, a desperate family, runners and communities searching, and a case going viral, before an area is searched with this intensity,” the group said. Detectives said on Saturday that they were examining a serial killer angle. However, on Monday, a police spokesperson, Athlenda Mathe, told reporters: “For now, nothing tells us that we’ve got a serial killer.” Mathe added that a suspect in the killing in July of the first woman, her boyfriend, was in custody. Ramaphosa said on Tuesday that he had directed police authorities to prioritise the ongoing murder investigations. Although the gender of the suspect or suspects in the other killings has not been confirmed, campaigners called on men to take responsibility for violence against women and children. “When some of these things happen in our presence, most of us men tend to look the other way,” said Bafana Khumalo, a co-executive director of Sonke Gender Justice. “You have excuses like ‘No, it’s not my business’. We feel strongly that violence against women is our business. We need, as men, to begin to face each other squarely and hold each other accountable.” The identification of Moselakgomo’s body has triggered an outpouring of grief. Mokoena met her about two years ago, when Moselakgomo joined a running club so she did not have to train alone on Saturdays. “She’s an amazing woman,” said Mokoena. “She always spoke about her daughter. Tsontso always said ‘Bye guys, I have to go, I have to go to my child’. “That’s just an example of how close she was with her baby girl. And she was a really light-spirited, funny and joyful woman, who was kind – very, very kind.” Running clubs around South Africa organised events to remember Moselakgomo and Mokoena said she hoped this would help push the government and police to do more to protect women. She added: “I’m just happy that the world, or at least our country, was standing still for a moment to acknowledge what is happening. Let’s get this out there and figure out exactly what is happening to women.”

US officials decide against backing Saudi Arabia in Yemen after meeting Houthi leaders

Officials from the US met Houthi leaders over the weekend at the country’s embassy in Muscat, Oman, it has been confirmed, leading to the US decision not to intervene to help Saudi Arabia drive back a Houthi advance inside Yemen. The Houthis reassured the US that the ceasefire agreement between the two sides struck in 2025 still held and the movement had no intention of attacking US shipping in the Red Sea. Only Saudi-linked shipping was regarded as a target owing to its blockade of Yemen, the Houthis confirmed. The meeting helps to explain the decision from the US president, Donald Trump, to condemn the Houthi advance down the west coast of Yemen for threatening freedom of navigation through the Bab al-Mandab strait, but so far to reject any military response in support of Riyadh. The US is already embroiled in an expensive and resource sapping conflict with Iran, which backs the Houthis. The US labelled the Houthis as a foreign terrorist entity in March 2025, but in the recent past has met leaders from Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran. The US vice-president JD Vance confirmed on Monday that the US was in direct contact with the Houthis. The US refusal to become directly involved has put pressure on Saudi Arabia to reach either a diplomatic solution with the Houthis over the future governance of Yemen, or to try to build a regional alliance with Pakistan and Turkey to force the Houthis back. In a lightning offensive last week, the Houthis seized control of large swathes of western Yemen along the Red Sea coast. The former deputy US ambassador to Yemen, Nabeel Khoury, said a “kind of tacit understanding between the Trump administration and the Houthis” had been struck. Khoury added: “The Houthis are promising the American administration that American and international navigation will not be affected in the Red Sea, but the only danger is to Saudi ships or those carrying Saudi oil.” In a bid to build popular support against the Houthis in the region, Riyadh made the controversial claim that the Houthis had fired a drone at the holy city of Mecca on Tuesday, but the missile had been destroyed by Saudi defence forces. It said the drone was entering a prohibited airspace close to Mecca’s most holy shrines. The drone was intercepted at about 6.50pm local time on Tuesday, coalition spokesperson Maj Gen Turki al-Maliki said in a statement. Saudi Arabia said any attack on Mecca is a red line and the move was condemned in lengthy statements by the UN-recognised Yemen government based in Aden as well as the 57-country Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. The Pakistani prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, condemned what he described as a “dastardly and heinous” attempted attack on Mecca. “The people of Pakistan are saddened and perturbed by this outrageous act,” he said in a statement posted on X. Houthi leadership – followers of a Shia Zaydism that respects the pilgrimage to Mecca – dismissed the claim as the lie of the century, adding that such worn-out lies had been used before and had fooled no one. The Houthi’s deputy foreign minister, Abdul Wahid Abu Ras, said “whoever opened the land of the two holy mosques to debauchery and entertainment parties, and whoever defiled the land of the two holy mosques by the presence of Zionist Jews in it, is the one who targets Mecca, Medina and the Islamic holy sites”. The Houthis countered that they had shot down a Saudi F-15 plane close to Marib, and attacked an Aramco plant in the Red Sea port city of Yanbu. No supporting evidence was provided by the Houthi military spokesperson, but the head of the Houthi negotiating team, Mohammed Abdul Salam, said the downing of the plane was a warning to the west not to fall victim to Saudi propaganda. Mohammed al-Farah, a Houthi political bureau member, said: “The truth is that Saudi Arabia is experiencing a real predicament in Yemen. It became embroiled in a war, a siege and an occupation, and then failed to achieve its goals. “Today, it is looking for external solutions, so it is begging the international community, warning the world about Bab al-Mandab and requesting support from Pakistan, Turkey, America, Israel and Egypt. Then it is trying to mobilise Muslims with a false pretext called ‘targeting Mecca’.” Separately, Israeli officials have leaked details of a secret meeting between military commanders from the US, Israel and several Arab states in Germany last week to discuss the war launched by Israel and the US against Iran. The report from Axios journalist Barak Ravid said the “private retreat” was organised by the commander of US Central Command (Centcom), Adm Brad Cooper. Citing two unnamed Israeli officials, Ravid reported that the meeting was attended by the military chiefs of staff of Israel, Saudi Arabia the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar Jordan and Egypt. It was the first such gathering since the US and Israel went to war with Iran more than six months ago. Israel, once a target for the Houthis, is offering to intervene in Yemen on Saudi Arabia’s behalf. A meeting of the UN security council on Tuesday condemned any attempt to close the Red Sea, but the meeting was notable for the Russian envoy beginning to edge away from its previous stance that the UN-recognised government based in Aden was the only legitimate government inside the country. In Beijing, the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, on Wednesday met his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, in a bid to secure Chinese support for its plans for the future administration of the strait of Hormuz. The strait remains effectively closed owing to separate Iranian and US blockades. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said China does not want to see further regional tension spill over into Yemen and the Red Sea. The Chinese called on the US to return to the talks based on the memorandum of understanding agreed between the two sides in June. Beijing, the main importer of Iranian oil, is eager for a settlement and is resisting any suggestion that US secondary sanctions applied to countries trading with Iran should apply to its own country. Oil prices remain well over $100 (£74) a barrel and a key Saudi East-West pipeline remains closed because of a bombing incident.

Former Kosovo president Thaçi sentenced to 25 years in prison by international court in The Hague – Europe live

Final votes are being counted in Sweden, with authorities reporting some 300,000 early and overseas ballots. The left-leaning opposition remains ahead with a projected 176 seats in parliament, compared with 173 for the governing right-leaning coalition and the far-right Sweden Democrats. But the gap between the two blocs remains razor-thin – under 27,000 votes – with only 1.3% of districts yet to submit their results. Swedish public broadcaster SVT projects that one seat could still shift, but no more than that, which would leave the opposition as the formal winners of the election. Party leaders on both sides suggested that any formal talks about what’s next would only start once the final results are in – and both leaders, the incumbent prime minister Ulf Kristersson and opposition leader Magdalena Andersson, hinted that they would be keen to have a go at forming the next government.

EU moves closer to social media ban for under 13s

The EU will move forward with plans for an under 13s social media ban, the head of the European Commission has confirmed. Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday that social media apps were “depriving children of their childhood” and that big tech platforms needed to prove the safety of their products. She promised a draft law for a total ban on social media for under 13s, while children aged 13-15 would be allowed “mini accounts” under parental supervision with time limits on apps. The commission will publish its social media plan on Thursday, which will have to be agreed by the European parliament and 27 EU member states if it is to become law. Von der Leyen also promised that the commission’s Digital Fairness Act, due to be submitted to the European parliament later this year, would tackle features such as addictive design, which, she said was “harming everyone”. The commission president made the comments in Strasbourg as part of her annual state of the union address. In a wide-ranging speech covering the EU’s place in a turbulent world and plans for continent-wide legislation, she also promised a European heatwave plan and committed to an emergency response mechanism to deal with sudden inflows of migrants, in response to events in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in August. Invoking “an openly hostile world”, von der Leyen went on to make an unprecedented invitation to Canada to become an “associate member” of the EU, and pledged to set out ideas for a European security council involving Canada, Norway, Ukraine and the UK. The former German defence minister said the EU needed its version of Nato’s article 4 – an “emergency security protocol” that means all member states would convene at the request of another in response to a hybrid attack. “Europe needs its own counter-hybrid playbook,” she argued. “We urgently need a consensus on how to respond to certain incidents – those which fall below armed aggression but clearly threaten our national security.” Nato’s article 4, which is separate from the collective defence clause, article 5, means members of the alliance can consult when one of them believes their territorial integrity, political independence or security is threatened. European nations have recently faced a series of hostile acts attributed to Russia, including sabotage, incursions by jets into European airspace and a drone attack on Leipzig airport. Warning that Ukraine faced a tough winter, von der Leyen suggested the EU may have reached its limits on economic restrictions against Russia. “What is needed is not necessarily new sanctions, but above all the enforcement of existing sanctions,” she said. After 21 rounds of measures, EU member states have found it increasingly difficult to agree sanctions on the Kremlin’s war machine, wary of the cost to their own economies. Von der Leyen also touched on Europe’s divisions over whether or not to introduce restrictions on trade with Israel and its illegal settlements in the West Bank. The commission has declined to publish a proposal to ban trade with illegal Israeli settlements, though several EU member states and allies including France, Canada and the UK have moved in this direction. “When Europe is divided, it cannot change the course of events,” she said.

Threats intensify against Israeli directors of Gaza documentary NAZA

Threats by the Israeli military, government ministers and far-right activists have intensified against the Oscar-winning Israeli directors of NAZA, a documentary about the country’s mass killing of civilians in Gaza, as 43 local human rights organisations expressed their support for the pair. NAZA, which was produced by the Guardian, is named for an acronym used euphemistically by Israel’s intelligence service to indicate how many civilians it expects to die in an airstrike on Gaza. The film builds on revelations first published by the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine, the Hebrew-language outlet Local Call and the Guardian between 2023 and 2025. The 80-minute documentary won the special jury prize at this year’s Venice film festival on Saturday, after receiving a 25-minute standing ovation – a festival record. Soon afterwards, however, the film’s directors, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, came under attack from members of Israel’s government, with the culture minister, Miki Zohar, calling for their citizenship to be revoked, and accusing them of “treason against the state”. The far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, called the directors “a disgrace”, while the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, condemned the film as “intolerable”, saying it portrayed the Israel Defense Forces as war criminals. On Tuesday, the IDF’s chief of staff, Eyal Zamir, said the military would “not allow IDF soldiers to be made targets through lies and blood libels” and would use “every tool at our disposal” against the film. The Israeli television channel i24 later reported that the military had opened a leak investigation and was seeking assistance from Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic security and counterintelligence agency. The agency would respond only after receiving a formal request from the military prosecutor, who would probably first consult the attorney general, the channel reported. Netanyahu posted a video which included an old clip of Abraham confronting a soldier in the occupied West Bank’s South Hebron Hills, an area where Israeli forces have repeatedly been accused of supporting settlers during attacks on Palestinians. In the video, the Israeli PM says: “The same director who produced that terrible film that slanders IDF soldiers”. On Wednesday, far-right Israeli journalists, influencers and activists escalated their threats against the two film-makers. Right wing activists were organising protests outside addresses linked to the directors and their colleagues. This comes after the Channel 14 journalist Yehuda Schlesinger said the directors should be “pursued” or “hunted” wherever they went, and prevented from returning to Israel. He urged Jews in Israel and abroad to make clear that what he described as “25 minutes of antisemitic applause” in Venice would come at a “heavy price”. A rightwing activist with tens of thousands of followers separately called for protesters to target Abraham’s family and associates, saying “we’ll show him ‘collateral damage’”. He shared a photograph of Abraham’s mother and sought information about the director’s return flight so supporters could “welcome” him at the airport. A mural appeared in Ashdod depicting Abraham and Szor with crosshairs, horns, swastikas and the word “traitors” emblazoned over the top. A video showing its creation was shared by the far-right rapper Yoav Eliasi, who has more than 750,000 followers on Facebook. As the threats against the directors intensified, film-makers and human rights groups voiced support for the pair. In a joint statement, 43 local human rights organisations urged Israeli authorities to stop what they described as incitement and threats against the film-makers, and not to prosecute either them or their sources. “The institutional response to the film and the threats against its creators are characteristic of dictatorial regimes,” said the statement, signed by groups including Peace Now, Adalah, B’Tselem, Physicians for Human Rights Israel and Breaking the Silence. More than 1,500 Israeli film-makers have also signed a petition defending “freedom of expression and creation” and expressing solidarity with Szor and Abraham. “In recent days, we have witnessed an unprecedented smear and incitement campaign against the film-makers, with the line between this rhetoric and physical violence or threats to their lives narrowing rapidly,” the petition said. The signatories said the role of art and journalism was to reflect society and encourage debate, “even when facing a harsh reality”, and called for the film to be released in Israel so audiences could judge it for themselves. Szor and Abraham won an Oscar for their previous documentary, 2024’s No Other Land (co-directed with Basel Adra and Hamdan Ballal), which spotlighted Palestinian resistance in the occupied West Bank. The NGOs called for a “thorough” investigation into the high number of casualties in Gaza, particularly among civilians, and for journalists to be granted unimpeded access to the territory, from which Israel has largely barred foreign reporters since October 2023. Prominent figures in international cinema have also expressed solidarity with Abraham and Szor. Laura Poitras, who directed the 2015 Oscar-winning documentary Citizenfour, about the whistleblower Edward Snowden, called the threats by Israeli government officials “a threat to journalists worldwide”.

Abortion bans make ‘evidence-based medicine’ impossible in some cases, new report says

Maternal fetal specialists should see abortion care as a “core component” of their practice in states where laws restrict abortion, according to a new special statement from the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM). Some 41 states ban abortion at some point in pregnancy, and these legal restrictions make it difficult or impossible for clinicians to practice “standard-of-care, evidence-based medicine”, the report, released on Tuesday, says. The Dobbs decision made it even more challenging for patients to access abortion care in the US, as more restrictions went into effect in some states. Deaths from ectopic pregnancies nearly doubled between 2020 and 2025, a ProPublica analysis found, and later-abortion providers in haven states report that patients are showing up “later and sicker”. “In some ways, the practice of maternal-fetal medicine is inseparable from family planning and abortion care,” said Justin Lappen, chair of SMFM’s reproductive health committee and a co-author of the statement. In July 2021, Kate Dineen was about 33 weeks pregnant and giddy with excitement. Her husband was finally able to join her for his first ultrasound of their second child, after Covid restrictions were loosened. But then the room went quiet; the silence stretched on as the ultrasound tech lingered over images of the baby’s brain. Soon, after an MRI and consultation with a pediatric neurologist, they learned that their son had suffered a catastrophic stroke in utero, and his chances of surviving even the pregnancy were poor. Dineen remembers asking, “What are my options?” One of the specialists said, “You may still be able to explore termination – if you’re able to travel.” Dineen was stunned. She lived in Massachusetts, where abortions were banned after 24 weeks except in specific cases – and her case didn’t qualify for an exception, she learned. The maternal fetal team at her hospital offered to link her to a later abortion clinic in Washington DC, Dineen said. She and her husband rushed to find childcare for their 18-month-old son and made the long drive to Maryland, where they stayed multiple nights, to receive care. “We’re just so grateful to get the compassionate care that we needed and deserved, and should have been able to get closer to home,” Dineen said. If she’d been able to get the abortion in Massachusetts, it would’ve been much easier to grieve and find closure, she said. “Instead, our lives were turned completely upside down,” she said. “I feel like I barely survived it.” Maternal fetal specialists are at the forefront of many reproductive health decisions – including genetic diagnosis, ultrasound diagnoses and screening for anomalies, and complicated maternal medical conditions. That’s why guidance from professional societies on supporting abortion is key, so providers may expand their roles and “continue to provide as much care as possible” said Lappen. The statement highlights what can be done on the individual level when it comes to caring for patients, and it points to the role that specialists play in “institutional advocacy” to make sure their health systems have plans to support patients ahead of time, he said. “It’s really important for health systems, for hospitals, to be able to create safe systems of care and to understand what the state reproductive health legal landscape looks like,” Lappen said. That way, they can create the most comprehensive and expansive systems to provide care, he argued. It’s imperative to set guidelines now, before emergencies arise, Lappen said. “When someone’s facing a really significant pregnancy complication, where decision-making has to happen in a critically acute or rapid time frame, that’s not the best time to get on the phone with the lawyers.” Providers and health systems should “expand access to abortion care to the legal limit allowed by state law” to provide the most comprehensive care to patients, the statement says. That means understanding the exceptions to those laws and how providers may offer care in those scenarios, which can often be complicated to interpret but are no less important, Lappen said. “The law is intended to be sort of black and white,” said Lappen. “And healthcare and physiology and pregnancy complications live in the shades of gray.” Dineen, who is now an advocate and board member of Reproductive Equity Now, said it’s “really wonderful” for the medical society to highlight the key role that abortion care plays in maternal-fetal medicine. Providers “should be exploiting exceptions to the fullest extent in ban states”, she said. At the same time, she added, “I wouldn’t want this to be interpreted as ‘bans with exceptions work.’” Maternal-fetal specialists can also advocate against abortion bans in order to serve all of their patients, she said. It’s a “misconception” that adding exceptions to abortion bans means that patients who need abortions will be able to access them, Dineen said. “A ban with exceptions often functions just as a ban.” Even though she believes her providers wanted to give her the standard of care, and even though Massachusetts did carve out exceptions, she still had to travel hundreds of miles to get an abortion. In Massachusetts, she said, “we uniquely are able to demonstrate why bans with exceptions don’t result in patients being able to access care.” In 2022, after Dineen and others testified about how restrictions kept them from medically necessary care, Massachusetts legislators expanded the abortion exception to include “grave fetal diagnoses”. It was an improvement, Dineen said, but some patients were still not getting care. Now, Massachusetts is removing the 24-week ban, which means all patients will have access to standard reproductive care. The law “unties the hands of our world-class MFMs and other providers here to ensure that these deeply personal medical decisions are made between the patient and their provider at any point in pregnancy”, Dineen said. Maternal-fetal specialists in Massachusetts played an important role in changing the law, Dineen said. “That has been a real game-changer, having their expertise guiding the discussion again,” she said.

German state leaders rally behind Friedrich Merz amid doubts over his future

Powerful German state leaders from Friedrich Merz’s party have rallied behind him as speculation builds that his days in office may be numbered. The chancellor’s hold on power has looked increasingly shaky since a bombshell regional election result earlier this month in which the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party routed his Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party in Saxony-Anhalt. With two more states heading to the polls on Sunday where the AfD is expected to perform well, Merz cancelled a plan to speak at the UN general assembly in New York next week because “his presence is required in Berlin”, a government official said on condition of anonymity. The announcement triggered fresh rumours that the unpopular chancellor could be preparing his own exit or wanted to remain and fight off a potential coup. With Merz on the ropes after just 16 months in office, eight ⁠state premiers from the CDU issued a surprise joint statement backing him. Citing the threat posed by nativist parties across Europe, they wrote: “Now more than ever, Germany’s political landscape needs stability”, ‌pointing to ‌elections in Poland, Italy, Spain, Greece and France next ‌year in which the political establishment faces a far-right challenge. “The path to restoring public trust in Christian Democrats lies in listening and taking political action, not in debates over personnel.” They added that Germany needed “reliability and decisive action” and, as state leaders, “we want to, and will, do our part to achieve this together with the chancellor”. The signatories included leaders who have been mentioned as possible Merz successors, such as North Rhine-Westphalia’s Hendrik Wüst. Markus Söder, the Bavarian premier and an ambitious conservative populist, has also said he was backing Merz. It remains to be seen how long the demonstration of solidarity with Merz will hold, with much depending on the outcome of the weekend elections. Polls indicate voters are very likely to punish the CDU again in the states of Berlin and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania on the Baltic coast, amid widespread dissatisfaction with Merz’s federal coalition government formed with the Social Democrats. Merz, who is also the CDU’s chair, will convene a meeting of its leadership on Sunday evening to coordinate a response as the results come in, in what senior party members called a pre-emptive “show of unity” behind the chancellor. The anti-immigration, pro-Kremlin AfD’s resounding win in Saxony-Anhalt sent a shockwave through Europe’s largest economy and beyond, although the party fell just short of the absolute majority required to govern alone in the state. It is seeking enough support from other parties’ lawmakers in the state parliament to make its chief candidate, Ulrich Siegmund, the first far-right regional leader in Germany since the Nazi period. Merz took office in May 2025 promising to cut the surging AfD back down to size by reviving the moribund economy and addressing fears around “irregular” migration. Instead, the AfD is now topping the national polls with clear momentum behind it. The party’s co-leader, Alice Weidel, has targeted the CDU for “destruction” and pledged last week in parliament that Merz’s party would “never win another election again”. During the same debate in the Bundestag, a wan and defensive Merz lashed out at Weidel and the AfD’s lawmakers, accusing them of seeking “ethnic cleansing” with their calls for “remigration”, a legally dubious programme of mass deportations. Critics said he failed to outline a clear vision for the remainder of his term. Weidel, whose party drew congratulations from Donald Trump and Elon Musk for its Saxony-Anhalt victory, on Wednesday taunted the state leaders backing Merz. “The CDU is making it clear that it is committed to ‘business as usual’ rather than the positive changes that citizens need,” she posted on Musk’s social media platform X. “The only way to achieve those changes is with the AfD!” The month’s developments have triggered a sense of helplessness and fear among the mainstream democratic parties, with even the opposition Green party calling on the CDU to right the ship before it is too late. “Get your shit together,” said the Greens co-leader Felix Banaszak in Berlin, appealing to Merz and the CDU to end speculation that he called destabilising. Banaszak said that while he was no fan of the centre-right-led government, he warned that calls for a Kanzlertausch, a swap of the chancellor from Merz in favour of another Christian Democrat, could trigger new elections in which the AfD could come out on top. “We live in such dramatic times that this country just can’t afford that right now,” he said. The next general election is due in 2029.