Merkel's Pyrrhic victory

Her party's diminished majority raises global uncertainty

Germans are not the only ones to face the consequences of the diminished victory for Angela Merkel and her party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), and the Bavarian sister party Christian Social Union. With 33 per cent of the vote, this performance marks the party’s worst result since 1949. With US President Donald Trump rapidly ceding his country’s global leadership and the United Kingdom headed for instability as Brexit negotiations ricochet from one controversy to another, Ms Merkel, head of Europe’s largest and consistently fast-growing economy, was widely seen as the natural successor to the role of leader of the