The sheer triviality of the German election campaign is a tribute to the success of the country. Only a nation that is secure and prosperous could afford to have a political debate that is so focused on the little things of life. “It’s funny,” says one of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s senior advisers, “foreigners want to know what the German election will mean for the Middle East or for the future of Europe. But we are debating ‘veggie day’ and road tolls.”
While the US, Britain and France are agonising about intervention in Syria, there is no agonising in Germany. A large majority of the electorate wants to stay out of the conflict – and all of the big political parties agree. The moral issue that has divided Germans this election is not chemical weapons, but vegetarianism. The Green party’s proposal that public canteens should stop serving meat, one day a week, has stirred up an impassioned debate about whether politicians have the right to get between Germans and their sausages.
This smallness of the German political debate is peculiar for a nation that is the fourth-largest economy in the world – and the biggest political and economic power in Europe. But a large part of Ms Merkel’s appeal seems to be her ability to persuade Germans that she can protect them from the harshness of the world beyond their borders.