“It would be a joke of history,” said Angela Merkel in Monday afternoon’s press conference, “to break up the coalition after a little over six months, just because the current government has not managed to work in a way that does not repel the people.” And people do feel repelled. In an election held in the state of Hesse last Sunday, Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its federal coalition partner, the Social Democratic Party (SPD), together lost around 20 percent of their support. If fresh national elections were held tomorrow, the CDU and SPD would not even reach 50 percent of the vote combined. Germany’s traditional mass parties are eroding, as voters defect in droves to the right-populist Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) and the Greens.

In response to the Hesse vote, Merkel has decided to give up the office of party chairwoman, moreover announcing that this will be her last term as chancellor. She has now officially begun a departure process that many had long been waiting for. Indeed, one can feel a sense of history being made, not least given that Merkel is Europe’s de facto leader.

Seeking to quash rumors that she may now indeed take up a position in the European Union itself, the Chancellor clarified that she will make no such move. She will leave a void not only in her own CDU party, but — within two years at the latest — a highly polarized, post-Brexit EU.