May 9th is not a day Angela Merkel will soon forget. First voters in North Rhine-Westphalia (raw), Germany's most populous state, booted the chancellor's allies out of office, meting out her worst political drubbing in more than five years in office. That evening European finance ministers meeting in Brussels armed a financial bomb to deter speculators threatening the stability of the euro (see pages 81-83). It seemed to work, but may also demolish Germans' long-term trust in the single currency. Both events will transform Mrs Merkel's chancellorship.
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