Albeit Merkel's party, CDU, disastrous performance in seven state elections this year ( no wins - six losses and one draw ), her butt is now saved by savvy 'realo' SocialDems in the federal state of Mecklenburg- W Pomerania and city state of Berlin till the end of her term.

Why hasn't a left-wing revolution of combined social-democratic, eco-green and former communists or socialists forces taken place so far?

You might inclined to think of sent brains by heaven, or just reasonable common sense, to social-democratic conservative realpolitik experts (still the majority branch of the upper echelons of federal and state elite of theirs).

They really gave Merkel reprieve with red-black state governments by sending 7 upper house (Bundesrat) bloc votes to the neutral camp, making it impossible to get a 2/3 majority against the current coalition with next year's state elections in Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony. Therefore, Merkel can claim two technical draws, making-up her a result for 2011 : zip wins - 4 real losses - three draws.

The Greens in Saarland could have undermined a three colors coalition of CDU- liberal FDP and Ecos by busting the government and calling for early elections, that might have resulted in a SPD-Green minority gov't sustained by socialists of "The Left(ists) = Die Linke(n)", taking away three bloc votes to the anti-Merkel camp.

Merkel's 'iron-fist' performance during the current euro crises has been giving the straight-thinking 'realos' winks to reconsider their alleged anti-Merkel stance.

Btw, Merkel's time will be over anyway, I bet 5 Cuban cigars against 1 Bud Light six pack - after eight years of rule, German voters are quite disillusioned about the quality of the CDU/CSU - FDP guys and their work toward advancing the people's well-being. Roesler's struggling FDP will very likely be sent into political nirvana, less than 5 pc of votes means no participation in Bundestag, lower house parliament.

With a possible strong SPD candidate for chancellorship, Peer Steinbrueck (very likely), SPD top guns are sending a clear message.

Steinbrueck, former finance minister in the grand-coalition of Merkel I, would easily be accepted by CDU conservatives if the worst case occured to them, meaning second place behind SPD, realos of both sides would be inclined to discard notions of an unreliable Germany of left-wing and eco-green activists with extreme love for euro bonds and, thereby, worsening the prospects for reasonable recovery, flushing the common currency down the drain when signalling that austerity can be delayed to eternity, and encouraging the remaining struggling PIGS states not to come up with fiscal brakes.

Steinbrueck would be a hardliner too. Swiss politicians are able to write volumes about his intransigence toward tax evading schemes in Switzerland and Liechtenstein and recouping German taxes out of Swiss bank accounts, being held by rich German tax cheaters.

The former finance minister would also make straight-talk to Luxembourg's premier Juncker and EU's chief commissioner Barroso, showing them that he is not a teddy-bear for late night hugging but for pushing soft-eggs aside.

Sarkozy wouldn't have someone to kiss on the cheek,  but the French president would have a strong partner (and vice versa) with whom he can create a solid axis, sweeping Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria into a common boat against fiscal instability of former soft currency countries that partly cheated on their state prior to the introduction of the common currency, intended to be stronger than the German Mark.