Amid Germany's political limbo, Merkel's star is on the wane

UNTIL September, German Chancellor Angela Merkel's political star shone bright. She had been voted Forbes' most powerful woman in the world for six successive years. She was also Europe's foremost politician and, arguably, the Western world's most respected leader.

Then on Sept 24 came a landmark election in Germany that transformed her political fortunes. Although she was re-elected Chancellor and her party, the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), won more seats than any other, its electoral performance was the worst since 1949.

Many of its supporters defected to the anti-EU, anti-immigration party, the Alternative for Germany (AfD). Germany's other major party, the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), also performed poorly. Initially it refused to continue as a coalition partner of the CDU, which forced Mrs Merkel to try and cobble together a coalition with the pro-business Free Democratic party (FDP) and the ecologically-focused party the Greens.