And . . . I’m back.
The first German election—the public, transparent one—is in the books. The second one—the one that really matters—is about to begin. How that one will turn out, no one knows, including me.
The one conclusion we can safely draw at this point is that either the Christian Democrats or the Social Democrats will be in opposition. That’s a good thing. Grand coalitions, except in times of national emergencies, are unhealthy, because they drive opposition to the extremes, and weaken centrist parties in the long run. Germany will be better off if the electorate has a clear choice between the center-right and the center-left. That has been missing for most of the past decade.