THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: German Chancellor Angela Merkel's personal popularity remains high.
But the weekend defeat for her ruling coalition in the Lower Saxony state election suggests that a victory in September's national election is far from assured.
For the first time in seven years, financial markets have to contemplate a future for the euro without Mrs. Merkel.
This will be hard.
The German chancellor has been key to the success of negotiations to stop the single currency from falling apart during the recent euro-zone debt crisis.
Despite the political concerns that she might have raised at home, she has repeatedly ensured that bailout packages were made available to debtor countries to prevent sovereign default.
Her departure could well leave the euro zone as a whole without the strong leadership that might still be needed to preserve the single currency. » | Nicholas Hastings | Monday, January 21, 2013
