German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition was under pressure yesterday after suffering a drubbing in elections in her home state ahead of a key parliamentary debate on the latest eurozone rescue plan.

Her Christian Democrats (CDU) lost votes, while her allies at the federal level, the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP), suffered total defeat in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

The Social Democrats (SPD) came top of the poll and will be able to choose whether to form a coalition government with the CDU or with the left-wing Linke party.

And the Greens scored a notable victory, winning representation to the local Parliament for the first time. This means the Greens are now represented in all of the country’s 16 regional assemblies, as well as at the federal level.

For Mrs Merkel’s party this was the fifth time in six regional elections this year that they had lost votes.

For the FDP, which scored just 2.7 per cent of the vote, this was the fourth time this year it lost all representation in a regional Parliament.

Voters appear to be worried by Mrs Merkel’s management of the eurozone debt crisis and angry at internal squabbling within her ruling coalition.

According to an opinion poll released last week, four out of five Germans fear the current financial crisis will get worse and a large majority do not believe Mrs Merkel can do anything about it.

CDU parliamentary leader Peter Altmaier acknowledged that the debt crisis had weighed on the election.

Parliament will this week start debating the latest European rescue fund put forward by Mrs Merkel amid bickering among her own backbenchers.

A number of them have threatened to abstain or vote against extending the European Financial Stability Facility’s (EFSF), which is meant to help alleviate the eurozone debt crisis.

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