Germany's lost political stability

Italy has had five different heads of government in the past ten years, France seven, and Great Britain four since 2022. For a long time the Germans could only smile mildly at such inconsistency. Over a period of 40 years, between 1982 and 2021, there have been exactly three chancellors: Helmut Kohl, Gerhard Schröder and Angela Merkel.

For decades, the Federal Republic was a haven of political stability. The corporatist-organized German state mastered upheavals and crises with an ability to achieve great social consensus that was admired abroad. This political stability was an economic guarantee for top creditworthiness, made Germany the anchor of stability in Europe in terms of foreign policy and, in terms of domestic policy, immune to populism for longer than other countries.

But this political stability is history. After Olaf Scholz had to vacate the Chancellery after three years, his successor Friedrich Merz has effectively failed after a year and a half. While Germany was long considered the gold standard of good governance, it is now wearing out its chancellors like the Italians, French and British wear out their heads of government. Germany is governed - but its governance is becoming worse and worse. Since election Sunday, the Left or AfD have been the strongest force in four of the 16 federal states.