The German chancellor, known for her cool, solution-oriented response in the pandemic’s early stages, faces her greatest challenge yet as cases rise and patience plummets months before her final term ends.

By Melissa Eddy

BERLIN — What a difference a year makes.

In late March 2020, Chancellor Angela Merkel was winning praise the world over for her ability to explain the science behind the coronavirus pandemic and galvanize Germany’s state leaders to line up behind a nationwide strategy founded in testing and contact-tracing that held the number of deaths at bay.

Today, Ms. Merkel finds herself apologizing to the public for a confusing, ever-changing set of regulations and pitted against state leaders eager to give a lockdown-weary public a break, even as a dangerous third wave of the virus sweeps the country. Making matters worse, the national vaccination campaign remains bogged down in bureaucracy and hampered by a lack of supply.

With only months left until Ms. Merkel’s fourth and final term ends — Germans vote on a new government on Sept. 26 — the woman who became known as the crisis chancellor for her ability to remain coolheaded and solution-oriented under pressure appears to have met her greatest challenge yet: governing as a lame duck.

The highly analytical style of politics that has served her well in the past — reading the polls and plotting a strategy centered on what will win support in the next round of voting — has been stymied as a result. That weakness has not only left a vacuum in the chancellery, but also set the country adrift at a time when it needs strong leadership and clear communication, analysts say.

“Angela Merkel is someone who thinks everything through to the end, but now with months left in her final term there is no end goal,” said Michael Koss, a professor of political science at Leuphana University Lüneburg. “The end is the election in September.”

Ms. Merkel’s troubles were evident in her recent attempt to tighten coronavirus restrictions over the Easter holidays, closing businesses and limiting gatherings. Her plan, which local governors had agreed to, came under immediate fire from the public and business leaders. Barely 36 hours later, she rescinded the idea, accepting blame for the mistake.

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