Ruling party loses election in key German state

Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered a significant political defeat Sunday when voters in Germany’s most populous state turned their backs on her ruling center-right coalition, ending the alliance’s control of the country’s upper house of Parliament.

The loss of a majority in the Bundesrat will make it difficult for Merkel to push through important legislation on matters such as tax cuts, healthcare changes and a decision to prolong the life of the country’s nuclear power stations.

Final results from North Rhine-Westphalia, home to one in five Germans, gave Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union party 34.6% of the vote and its coalition partner, the Free Democratic Party, 6.7%, the Associated Press reported. The opposition Social Democratic Party also won just over 34% of the vote, with much of the rest going to smaller opposition parties.

“This election result is personally a very bitter one for both me and the CDU,” said Juergen Ruettgers, the current chief of North Rhine-Westphalia and a member of Merkel’s CDU.

Political negotiations will determine who will next rule North Rhine-Westphalia state, which has been controlled by the ruling coalition since 2005. Loss of full control in the state will cost Merkel’s bloc its slim majority in the 69-seat Bundesrat, the upper house that represents Germany’s 16 states and plays a central role in the passage of major legislation.

The national government will find itself beholden to opposition parties as it tries to push through its program.

The voting in Germany’s industrial heartland, the first significant electoral test since Merkel began her second term in October, was overshadowed by debate over Europe’s recent economic bailout of the Greek government.

Critics accused Merkel of initially delaying a decision on Germany’s contribution to the $146-billion international rescue package in order not to upset the 13.3 million voters in North Rhine-Westphalia. The bailout was widely unpopular among Germans, who contended that Greece had gotten deeply in debt through its profligate spending.

Parliament approved Germany’s $28.2-billion portion of the bailout two days before Sunday’s election.