BERLIN - Voting began on Sunday in Germany's northern state of Schleswig-Holstein, where Angela Merkel's conservatives are neck-and-neck with their Social Democrat rivals and know a loss of control of the state could dent the chancellor's 2013 re-election hopes.
Merkel's resolute stance through the dramas of the euro zone crisis has left her personal popularity intact. But her national center-right coalition is in jeopardy after a slump in public support for her junior coalition partners, the Free Democrats (FDP), due to their infighting and prickly leaders.
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