Angela Merkel’s ruling coalition no longer has a majority in Germany’s upper house of parliament, the Bundesrat. This loss means that her government needs the support of one other party in order to pass legislation—a significant loss of power for Merkel.

The Christian Democratic Union (cdu) lost the state elections in Germany’s most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia (nrw). It won 34.6 percent of the vote—its lowest ever result in that state. Although the election has no clear winner—the Social Democratic Party and its Green Party allies are one seat short of having a majority—it is unlikely that the cdu will take the helm of the state.

“This is a debacle for the government,” said Peter Lösche, emeritus professor of politics at the University of Göttingen.

Now Merkel’s government will find it hard to be decisive, as any legislation could be blocked by other parties.

“There is a danger that (Merkel’s coalition) is, after only seven months in power, facing its political end,” said Josef Schlarmann, who serves on the cdu’s leadership committee. He said that any major government projects are now “as good as dead.”

Many in Germany feel that the coalition government consisting of the cdu and the Free Democratic Party (fdp) has only itself to blame. “[T]o be fair, it’s not the voters of nrw that have robbed Merkel’s administration of the ability to pursue major reforms—the cdu-fdp coalition did that all on its own from the first day it took office last autumn,” writes The Local. “The conservatives and the fdp came to power in October supposedly with a mandate for changes beyond the grasp of Merkel’s last clunky coalition with the center-left Social Democrats (spd). But the new government quickly lurched from a shambolic start to political infighting and paralysis.”

Merkel has also irritated her sister party, the Christian Social Union (csu). No csu politicians were invited to her emergency meeting on the Greece crisis on Sunday night. The csu’s Georg Nüsslein warned that as a consequence, Merkel shouldn’t be surprised if the csu doesn’t vote as she would like it to.

The election result sets Germany on course for further indecisive leadership. With all the instability in the world, and in Europe in particular, this will soon make Germans clamor for a more decisive government. For more, see our article “Germany: A Potentially Momentous Summer Looms.”