Spokesmen for Ms. Merkel strenuously deny that North Rhine-Westphalia influenced her tactics on Greece.
The North Rhine-Westphalia electoral results will have pundits and pollsters predicting its significance for the capital.
In early May a Christian-liberal coalition lost an election in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populous state.
The Labour Minister for Germany's North Rhine-Westphalia region, Guntram Schneider, voiced scepticism about the initiative, however.
Her center-right coalition faced a crucial regional election on May 9 in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populous state.
The bitter result for my party in North Rhine-Westphalia jeopardises the political basis for the continuation of our task.
The eastern states have around 11m voters, fewer than in North Rhine-Westphalia alone.
German authorities suspect a batch of lasagne sent from Luxembourg to a retailer in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
There is a precedent: in 1949, North Rhine-Westphalia's members cast split votes.
PKK. It was they who let the rally go ahead, since they help run the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, where Dortmund lies.
RAG, which receives generous coal subsidies, must be approved by both the federal government and that of its home state, North Rhine-Westphalia.
ECONOMIST: The controversial takeover of Ruhrgas is held up by a court
Last year, her party lost its majority in the Upper House after failing to hold on to another highly populated region, North Rhine-Westphalia.
And even if such a pairing does not happen this time, the next chance may come soon: in May 2005, in an election in North Rhine-Westphalia.
ECONOMIST: Could the Greens become the kingmakers of Germany?
After that setback, off he went to build a new base in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populous state, where he had once taught at a university.
And Wolfgang Clement, Mr Rau's successor as premier of North Rhine-Westphalia, where an election will be held in May, has been accused of taking some free flights too.
In North Rhine-Westphalia, the country's most populous state, a new minority government of Social Democrats and Greens favours keeping children together in school for up to ten years.
Bail-out plans for Greece are already thought to have contributed to a defeat for her centre-right coalition in a key state election in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) earlier this month.
He was hastily drafted into Bonn, after only weeks as economics minister of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, to help his new master fend off the advance of Oskarism.
In Germany, where a ban on online gambling came into force last year, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia has ordered Betfair, a British firm (see article), to block access to its residents.
Voters in North Rhine-Westphalia won't experience automated calls or be asked to donate over the internet, but the votes they cast will have an impact on the future course of Germany and its role within Europe.
And the Christian Democrats no longer seem so confident of continuing their string of electoral successes next spring, when they had been hoping to wrest control of both Schleswig-Holstein and North Rhine-Westphalia from the Social Democrats.
Pollsters say that the Free Democrats, Germany's liberals, have become more popular than the Greens, who are in ruling coalitions both in the federal government in Berlin and in the state one in Dusseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia's capital.
The sin of which he stands accused is that, as premier for 20 years of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populous state, he improperly used a private jet chartered by the Westdeutsche Landesbank, of which the state owns nearly half.
Voters punished Mr Schroeder's Social Democrats (SPD) at the polls in the key state of North Rhine-Westphalia on Sunday, amid disillusion with painful economic and welfare reforms that have so far failed to boost growth and curb mass unemployment.
The centre-right has a majority not only in the Bundestag, the lower house, but also in the Bundesrat, the upper house made up of state representatives, which it will retain so long as it keeps control of North Rhine-Westphalia next May.
While both countries have signalled their willingness to sign the deal, they still need parliamentary approval which is now at risk after Swiss prosecutors on Saturday issued arrest warrants for three German tax inspectors from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
FORBES: Switzerland to Attempt to Arrest German Tax Collectors
On Wednesday the state's Consumer Affairs Minister, Johannes Remmel, said that "after analysing the data we have learned that through a middleman in Luxembourg, a significant amount of goods has been shipped to Germany and North Rhine-Westphalia, and those goods are suspected, and I repeat only suspected, to have not been properly labelled".
He also has a powerful base as party chairman in North-Rhine-Westphalia, the country's most populous state, where the most crucial of all the regional elections is due next May.
Even voters in North-Rhine Westphalia, the most heavily-populated German state, rejected her party in favour of the Social Democrats (SPD), who promised to go easy on cutting debt.
The Land of North-Rhine Westphalia recently resolved to sell its 17.5% stake in WestLB.
应用推荐