Merkel handed local election reverse by voters
Voters in Germany’s most populous state dealt Chancellor Angela Merkel a painful setback, erasing her government’s majority in the upper house of parliament and curbing its power after a stumbling start and criticism over the Greek debt crisis.
Ms Merkel’s centre-right alliance was voted out of power in a state election in North Rhine-Westphalia, a region of some 18 million people that includes Cologne and the industrial Ruhr area.
