Frankfurt am Main (AFP) - Angela Merkel's junior coalition partners threatened Sunday to quit her governing coalition, blaming bitter infighting in Berlin for massive losses to both the chancellor's conservative party and the centre-left in a regional vote.
"The state of the government is unacceptable," Social Democratic Party (SPD) general secretary Andrea Nahles said at a Berlin news conference.
After leaders reluctantly agreed to a third right-left coalition earlier this year, the fourth Merkel government has staggered from one crisis to another, almost collapsing twice over the summer in battles over relatively minor points.
On Sunday, Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) suffered a bruising 10-point blow from voters in Hesse state, garnering 28 percent of the vote according to an exit poll from broadcaster ARD.
But the SPD, her reluctant partners in Berlin, came off even worse, shedding almost 11 points to a historical low of 20 percent. ...
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