Angela Merkel loses to North Rhine-Westphalia

Voters in Germany's most populous state dealt a decisive blow to Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union on Sunday, preliminary results show, a potentially ominous preview of things to come for the chancellor in next year's federal elections.

Merkel's party mustered about 26% of the vote in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, a drop from 35% in 2010 and 45% in 2005, the year she took office, the results show. The opposition SocialDemocrats and Greens, at about 39% and more than 11%, respectively, secured the majority of seats they needed to form a governing coalition.

The upstart Pirate Party, a group primarily devoted to Internet freedom, rode its recent surge in popularity to a nearly 8% vote share and won entry into its fourth consecutive state parliament. Merkel's national coalition partner, the Free Democrats, managed a better-than-expected 8%, above the 5% threshold needed for representation, while the far-left Left Party was kicked out of the statehouse with less than 3% of the vote. Other parties with low shares accounted for the remaining votes.

Election results in North Rhine-Westphalia have been harbingers of change in the past. It was a loss in this state in 2005 that brought down the chancellorship of Merkel's predecessor, Social Democrat Gerhard Schroeder. Now, the state that allowed Merkel to assume power in the first place could undermine her quest for a third term.