Why we should care about the German elections

German parliamentarians used to pride themselves on being boring, but the past two years have turned Teutonic politics upside down. After a decade of dreary stasis under Angela Merkel, a system designed to run on tramlines has become a rollercoaster ride. So why has the political scene in Germany suddenly become so volatile? And what are the implications of this change of pace for Britain, and the EU?

The drama began when Merkel welcomed a million migrants into Germany, a decision which almost destroyed her political career. ‘Wir schaffen das!’ she told Germany. ‘We can do this!’ Unfortunately for her, a lot of Germans disagreed. Her ratings slumped, while those for Germany’s anti-immigration party, Alternative für Deutschland, soared. That’s no surprise, when you see that the Project 28 survey shows, for example, that 85 per cent of Germans believe illegal immigration is a serious problem in their country. In last year’s state elections in Mecklenburg (her own constituency, in one of the poorer parts of eastern Germany), AfD beat her conservative Christian Democratic Union into third place; the Chancellor had been humiliated in her own backyard by a party formed only three years earlier.