"This is a warning shot for the (federal) government parties," Vice Chancellor, FDP leader Guido Westerwelle said.

"This is a bitter defeat for the CDU in the state and federally, " said Gerd Langguth, political scientist at Bonn University and biographer of Merkel.

This failure would cause Merkel to compromise more with the opposition in future cases as her government lost a majority in Bundesrat, the upper house of the parliament, which represents 16 states.

At present, Merkel's coalition government owns 37 out of the total 69 Bundesrat votes, in which NRW has 6 votes. After Merkel lost control of these 6 votes, the opposition party will have more power to counter the government's future decisions, like tax cuts and health reforms. "The loss of the Bundesrat majority is not an insurmountable problem for the chancellor but it makes it more complicated for her coalition to get through some important policies," said Langguth.

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