Germans voted yesterday in the country's most populous state. North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) elections were seen as a sort of referendum on Chancellor Angela Merkel's six-month-old government and, apparently, Merkel’s coalition - conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) and the Free Democrats (FDP) - failed the test but the Linke got a very good result.

According to first round results, Christian Democrats only scored 34.6 percent, while their partner, the Free Democrats, took 6.7 – which is not enough for the two to keep on governing alone in the western region of North Rhine-Westphalia. The German left party (Die Linke) entered in the Parliament of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia , obtaining a parliamentary group of 11 members. The results confirmed the gradual deployment of Die Linke throughout the German territory, not only in the East, its zone of origin. The German Left is now present in 7 of the 16 states and defined as meta reaching 13.

Chancellor’s was ought to hold power in the region to maintain a majority in the upper house of parliament, the Bundesrat, and to avoid impediments in delivering tax cuts and putting into practice other policies approved after last September's federal election. Up to now, Angela Merkel's government could count on 37 of the 69 votes in the Bundesrat, but from now on she will have only 31. The chancellor will have to depend on the centre-left opposition parties to shove through her economic plan, however the opposition has already showed disagreement on her financial agenda.

The election comes immediately after the Bundestag agreed on a 22 billion euro emergency rescue for debt-stricken Greece. The Chancellor has tried for months to delay the unpopular aid package for Greece but she could only do it until last week, which might have been the worse timing for her political situation. According to a YouGov poll published on Saturday, 21 percent of NRW electorate said the Greek bailout would have an effect on their ballot choice. The main concerns seemed to be unemployment and disappointment over the feature of regional government.

The rival Social Democrats (SPD) abstained in Friday's vote on the Greek package, which was seen by analysts as a strategic political position and that can conduct them to the top again. They were in power for four decades, until 2005. Recent polls show that the SPD and their favorite partners, the Greens, have the support of between 45 and 47 percent of voters.