Germany's coalition government is in jeopardy after Merkel's key ally resigns

Change is afoot in Germany. That is, if the recent European Union parliamentary elections didn't make that clear enough already.

Andrea Nahles, the leader of Germany's center-left Social Democratic Party and a key ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, announced her resignation on Sunday, citing a lack of support for her leadership. "The discussions within the parliamentary group and the large amount of feedback from the party have shown me that there is no longer support for me in holding these offices," Nahles wrote in a statement.

Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats party currently governs in a coalition with the SDP, but a more left-leaning leader replacing Nahles could throw the alliance into jeopardy and potentially end Merkel's chancellorship. High-ranking members of the CDU want to keep the coalition in tact, but others believe time for a new start has arrived, Deutsche Welle reports. As for the SDP, Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz, now the most senior SDP politician, has already ruled out another coalition. "Three grand coalitions in a row would not do democracy in Germany any good," he said.

Both the SDP and the CDU suffered heavy defeats in last week's EU elections. Germany's Greens have surpassed the CDU as the country's most popular party and the SDP's popularity is at an all-time low.