Germany's ruling CDU (Christian Democratic Union) party has called off a planned executive board retreat in Magdeburg, capital of the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, that had been scheduled for late August. According to the magazine Der Spiegel, the cancellation came at the request of Saxony-Anhalt's state premier Sven Schulze, whose regional party branch feared that hosting national party leaders — including unpopular Chancellor Friedrich Merz — could hurt the CDU's local campaign. Saxony-Anhalt holds its state parliament election on 6 September, where polls show the far-right AfD leading with over 40 percent of the vote and potentially winning an outright majority, while the CDU trails at 24–26 percent.