Election diary, Jan 19th

What was important this week

Dear Reader,

After the initial excitement of Olaf Scholz’ coalition collapsing in November - and a couple of heated Bundestag debates in the weeks that followed - Germany's election season seemed to go into hibernation.

The polls barely moved over the Christmas period, and the candidates seemed to shy away from saying anything remotely controversial.

Despite the ruptures taking place in world politics, the parties seem to have decided to fight over the somewhat parochial theme of who will give the biggest tax breaks to the middle classes.

CDU candidate Friedrich Merz has been particularly anonymous so far. Apparently afraid to attack the parties that he wants to go into coalition with in five weeks time, he seems more keen on watering down his party programme than sharpening it.

Merz' only notable attempt to stir up controversy was a suggestion that Germany could take citizenship away from dual nationals who had been convicted of crimes.

This week though, the Greens have breathed a bit of l…