Ben Mason

As symbolism goes, it borders on cliché. Running out of time to gain any serious traction, Germany’s Social Democrats last week unveiled their new campaign posters, and they promptly disintegrated on first contact with rain. The seven images neatly chronicle - or will do once they’re replaced - the profound failure of the main challengers to Angela Merkel’s re-election to provide any serious challenge at all. The first four have pictures of determinedly normal people standing alongside a totemic policy pledge: more childcare provision, lower rents, higher pensions, introduction of a minimum wage (Germany still doesn’t have one, though it has been a perennially topical debate).

The announcement by Angela Merkel last week that there would be no second haircut for Greece may have surprised some readers unfamiliar with financial jargon. But once you know that ‘haircut’ means a debt write-down, nothing could be less surprising. Not because it’s a preposterous idea - in fact it’s almost bound to happen - but because two months before a general election, Merkel couldn’t say anything else. It’s pure Realpolitik. For a long time, speaking against European integration was taboo in Germany. In a country crippled by guilt for its past, insisting on German national interest or criticising European neighbours had too many uncomfortable echoes. The result was not so much public consensus as lack of public discussion.