Teflon leader: Party's big loss won't tarnish Merkel's image
ABC News
Angela Merkel will leave office in the coming months with her popularity intact, despite her party’s dismal election result
BERLIN -- Angela Merkel will leave office in the coming months with her popularity intact among voters and widely admired beyond Germany as a chancellor who deftly steered her country, and Europe, through numerous crises.
Her center-right political bloc, on the other hand, is in shambles.
The once-dominant Christian Democratic Union and their Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union, suffered their worst-ever national election result Sunday. The Union bloc took home less than a quarter of the vote and may find itself relegated to the role of opposition after 16 years in power.
The blame for that has been placed largely on her party's uninspiring candidate, Armin Laschet, a state governor whose gaffes and chummy demeanor contrasted with Merkel's image as a calm, professional stateswoman.
