Angela Merkel has been chancellor since 2005. Her Lutheran faith (she calls it an inner compass) expresses itself in her unflashy style and her instincts - debt is bad; helping the needy, good. She thinks ethically, not ideologically. ‘I’m a bit liberal, a bit Christian-social, a bit conservative’, she said in 2009. Her years in office have made her a familiar figure to Germans and to the world. However, Germany needs reform. The lowest-paid 40% of German workers are earning less than 20 years ago. Foodbank use is up. The rate of investment has been dropping since 2012. Bridges creak and potholed roads challenge even the best-engineered suspensions. The economically crucial car industry has been tainted, as has the country’s air, by emissions from the diesel engines it favours (a scandal it tried to cover up). Dirty coal is filling gaps left by closing nuclear plants, and the country’s carbon-dioxide emissions are up.