Angela Merkel's reputation is declining at home and abroad

This May was a dark month for German Chancellor Angela Merkel. First she lost a great deal of trust internationally because of her inconsistent and almost incomprehensible behavior toward aid for Greece.

Then, on May 9, she suffered a serious political setback at home. In regional elections in Germany's most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia, her party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), lost more than 10 percent of their support compared to the previous elections in 2005. The previous state government, a coalition between the CDU and the pro-business-Free Democratic Party (FDP) no longer has a majority.

Regarding Merkel, the problem was that her attitude toward the Greece aid package deepened international concern over her policies and badly affected Germany's image abroad. And her go-it-alone approach on a ban on naked short-selling or even a new European stability pact, which she failed to discuss with other leaders, made things even worse. She even faced intense criticism, for example from EU Commission President José Manuel Barroso, who called her plans "naïve."

Many are asking themselves how Merkel, often feted as a star of international politics, could have made such mistakes? It's unclear whether even the chancellor herself knows the answer.

And as for the consequences of the North Rhine-Westphalia elections, the results allow for neither an SPD-Green coalition, a CDU-Green alliance or one between CDU and the FDP. With the socialist party, The Left, entering the regional parliament for the first time, only four combinations are realistically possible. The Social Democrats with the Greens and the FDP; the CDU, the Green party and the FDP; an SPD coalition with the Greens and The Left party; or a grand coalition between the CDU and the SPD.

The Free Democrats have so far said no to all the options. And the SPD and Greens swiftly rejected The Left party, whose supporters in North Rhine-Westphalia are seen as particularly dogmatic. That may have been a tactical move but only time will tell.

If an SPD-CDU coalition (or CDU-SPD as both gained roughly the same number of votes) were formed in the state, it could have important repercussions nationally. CDU-SPD in North Rhine-Westphalia and in Berlin - that would be a powerful political change. A poll for ARD public television found that 58 percent of Germans now favor a grand coalition at the national level.

The FDP, whose runaway success in the federal elections last September finally took them back into government, would probably slip into relative obscurity. The Greens, on the other hand, would become the strongest opposition party, handing them the chance to grow even further.

- Bruno Waltert