BERLIN, Germany (AFP) — Germans began voting Sunday in two state elections where far-right and far-left gains could send fresh shock waves through Berlin and rock the government of embattled Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

Merz, 70, has scheduled a crisis meeting of his center-right CDU party leadership to discuss the first results as they come in from the regional polls in Berlin and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

The chancellor, in power for 16 months, has also cleared his calendar for the following days and skipped a trip to the United Nations General Assembly to deal with potential aftershocks from the votes.

The far-right, pro-Trump and Moscow-friendly Alternative for Germany (AfD) dealt a stunning defeat to his CDU two weeks ago in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, fuelling speculation that internal party support for Merz is wobbling.

"I'd be in favor of the AfD winning, because then they'll have to prove themselves: either something will happen, or it'll be the last time they get any votes," pensioner Peter Sommer told Agence France-Presse (AFP) outside a polling station in Schwerin, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania's state capital.

The election debacle came as Merz's approval ratings have nose-dived and he has struggled to push through promised economic and social welfare reforms with his center-left coalition partners the SPD.

The AfD will make fresh gains Sunday, polls suggest, although it is unlikely to come within reach of power in either state — unlike in Saxony-Anhalt where it fell just a few seats short of an absolute majority.

Polling stations opened at 8 a.m. with voting set to last until 6 p.m.

Outside a polling station in the south of the capital, Moritz Lembke-Oezer, 43, told AFP that though he fears that the vote could benefit the AfD, he hopes "the CDU will be punished" by this election.

"Maybe then Friedrich Merz will be gone," said the Berlin native, who said he plans to vote for the Die Linke because of the far-left party's promise to tackle the capital's dire housing crisis.

Under-fire Merz received some badly needed support from CDU powerbrokers on Wednesday. Eight state premiers declared jointly that Germany needs "stability now more than ever" rather than "discussions about personnel."

They refrained from issuing a personal endorsement for Merz, however.

In Sunday's vote, the CDU faces different challenges unique to those regions.

In the northeastern coastal state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Merz's party is an onlooker to the main battle between the SPD of popular state premier Manuela Schwesig and the AfD.