The homestretch of Germany's federal election campaign and Angela Merkel's exactly where she did not want to be. Back on the campaign trail. The outgoing chancellor of 16 years, seen Tuesday in her home constituency on the Baltic Sea, stumping for her struggling successor as head of the Christian Demcrats Armin Laschet. Other potential heirs have stumbed before him.

Is it down to Laschet or has the woman who has been the dominant force in German, and dare we say European politics, sucked all the oxygen in the room?

In fact polls suggest that voters want the candidate that is most like Merkel and that just might be vice-chancellor and finance minister Olaf Scholz, the pragmatic center-left former mayor of Hamburg. How much of a revival for the Social Democrats? Germans do the opposite of the French. First they pick a coalition, then they decide on a platform and finally they agree on names.

Some quip that on Monday morning, when the ballots are counted, that is when it gets interesting. This will be the first coalition formed since Brexit, a further ratcheting of tensions between the US and China and a pandemic that has even seen Berlin bust the lid on spending caps. If, like last time it takes months to form that government, it is not the Germans but all of Europe that will be holding its breath. How long can we afford to wait?

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