LONDON: Just before the leader of Britain's Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg, entered government with the Conservatives in 2010, Angela Merkel is said to have remarked that, in coalitions: "The little party always gets smashed."
The deputy prime minister's experience has borne that out and polls suggest that he and his party are now so unpopular that he could lose his seat at the May 7 election, ending his frontline political career.
Many voters see Clegg, 48, as weak and blame the centrist Liberal Democrats for propping up Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative-led administration as it introduced tough austerity measures.
Clegg has been seen as shielding Cameron from excessive criticism, while a focus group run by a leading pollster last month compared him to a chihuahua in a handbag.
Clegg argues that the Liberal Democrats have taken the edge off coalition austerity policies by "anchoring the government in the centre ground" and in recent months he has tried to distance himself from the Conservatives.
But his party's support has dropped by over two-thirds since 2010 and they look likely to lose around half of their 56 House of Commons seats at next month's election.
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