Thursday, March 15, 2012

Snap Election North Rhine-Westphalia Faces

Germany faces  a major regional election after the government of North Rhine-Westphalia lost an important budget vote in the state assembly on Wednesday, paving the coalition government to the brink of collapse after less than two years in office.

Election in Germany's most populous state with 18 million inhabitants may bring major implications for Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-right coalition in Berlin as this would further weaken her ailing junior coalition partner, the pro-business Free Democratic Party.

North Rhine-Westphalia has been ruled for almost two years by a minority government made up of the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) and Greens. State governor Hannelore Kraft has repeatedly said she cannot rule if her coalition can't pass an important law like the budget, which opposition parties voted down on Wednesday.

Governing coalition,  has 90 seats in the 181-seat parliament, had expected the FDP to abstain from the vote, which would have enabled it to get the law passed. Media agencies

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