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Angela Merkel’s 18-year reign could be coming to an end

The grand coalition government headed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel is once again on the brink of collapse.
The Christian Social Union, dropped than 10 points in Sunday’s vote to lose its overall majority for just the second time since taking power in the 1960s.

The grand coalition government headed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel is once again on the brink of collapse after two of its three parties suffered brutal election losses in the state of Bavaria.

The Christian Social Union dropped 10 points in Sunday’s vote to lose its overall majority for just the second time since taking power in the 1960s. Another one of Merkel’s coalition partners, the Social Democrats, also dropped to less than 10 percent of the vote — or half their former support — during the Bavarian state elections.

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The results mean that the fragile coalition between the Christian Social Union, Social Democrats, and Merkel’s Christian Democrats now hangs in the balance and could face even more uncertainty later this month when voters go to the polls on Oct. 28 in central Hesse state, home to the financial hub Frankfurt.

Opinion polls say Merkel’s ally Volker Bouffier will face an uphill battle to stay on as the state’s premier.

German daily Die Welt has labeled the Hesse vote the “litmus test” for Merkel ahead of her party’s annual conference in December where she will be seeking re-election.

“Merkel's future could be decided in Hesse,” according to the newspaper, “because a loss there would imperil her re-election at the party congress.”

Speaking on Monday, Merkel lay the blame for the poor showing by the coalition partners on a loss of confidence by the electorate in politics and politicians. Merkel said that even good economic data and full employment were not enough for people “if something is not there, which is just as important — and that is trust, trust in the political actors.”

In the face of a growing opposition to Germany’s handling of the immigration crisis, the Christian Social Union has attempted to push a harder line on migration, which led to a high-profile fight earlier this years between Merkel and Christian Social Union leader and German interior minister Horst Seehofer

The pro-immigration Green party, however, were the big winners in Sunday’s vote and surged into second place with almost 17.5 percent of the vote.

The anti-immigration Alternative for Germany is set to enter Bavaria's parliament for the first time with over 10 percent of the vote. Europe’s other right-wing politicians, including France’s Marine Le Pen and Italy’s Matteo Salvini, cheered the group’s sudden success.

Cover image: German Chancellor Angela Merkel attends a joint press conference as part of a meeting with Slovenia's Prime Minister Marjan Sarec at the chancellery in Berlin, Germany, Friday, Oct. 12, 2018. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)