GERMANY: German chancellor Angela Merkel is facing the greatest challenge of her first year in power as her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) plummets to an opinion poll low not seen since the dark days of the political donations scandal.
A new poll for Stern magazine shows the CDU with just 29 per cent support, one point behind their grand coalition partners, the Social Democrats (SPD).
A major reason for the dropping support is an ongoing political row over plans to refinance the indebted health system.
A tentative compromise reached last month is unravelling day by day and the reform may yet be scrapped unless a new political compromise emerges.
A main aim of the reform - to reduce health insurance premiums and increase patient contributions for medical treatment - has lead the SPD to demand limits on how much low earners should have to contribute each year for doctor's visits, to huge CDU opposition.
The chances that this reform will fail are high: political infighting and the powerful medical lobby successfully hobbled two separate attempts by the Schröder government to cut costs in Germany's health system, the third most expensive behind the US and Switzerland.
The issue has caused the first serious split in the government and standing on the fault line is Dr Merkel. She has called on the ruling parties to end weeks of squabbling over the plans which she said had left people "unnecessarily unsettled".
"The people want that we do our work without tit-for-tat. Daily interviews with opposing positions will not be rewarded," she said yesterday.
She is facing the greatest opposition from CDU rivals who have emerged after a year in the background, sensing a political opportunity. Many of these state premier "princes" who had their eye on the leadership before Dr Merkel beat them to it face state elections in 2007-8 and will reject any compromise that will overburden their state health budgets.
This cacophony of opinions inside the CDU camp has delighted the SPD. "The CDU has the problem that Dr Merkel isn't leading. It's a chicken race," said Johannes Kahrs, spokesman for the SPD right wing.
Nearly two-thirds of Germans polled by Stern magazine say they don't expect any solutions from this government and an increasing number of government members seem to agree.
"This government is acting as if it was a normal administration with a tight parliamentary majority, which it's not," said Prof Karl Rudolf Korte, political scientist at the University of Duisburg and Essen. "Dr Merkel has yet to realise that, on issues like this, she can afford not to bring everyone with her."
This bad atmosphere has driven support for the two main parties down to just 49 per cent support combined. But Germany's year-old political marriage of convenience looks like sticking together, for better or worse, for some time to come.
"The fear of fresh elections has welded this coalition together," said Prof Korte.