Angela Merkel had some prophetic words for Nick Clegg at the start of the year. The German chancellor warned the deputy prime minister that his party’s prospects were dim, based on the experience of the liberals who joined her coalition for five years but were wiped out in the 2013 election.
As Mrs Merkel’s junior partners, the Free Democratic Party suffered a fatal loss of identity, fought bitterly among themselves and failed to implement their core promise of lower taxes.
Voters punished them severely, and the FDP went from 93 MPs to zero — yes, zero — in a grim foretaste of the fate awaiting its British sister party 18 months later.
Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats clearly failed to learn important lessons from