A wounded Merkel will further weaken the European project

The chancellor’s failure to form a coalition may lead to fresh elections, and a power vacuum in Berlin would have a knock-on effect in Paris, writes Philippe Legrain

Amid all the crises and upheavals that have battered the European Union over the past decade, one fixed point has been the stolid, stable government of German chancellor, Angela Merkel.

But, following the collapse of talks to form a new coalition, Merkel suddenly seems mortal.