A boost for Germany’s right

GERMANS MAYSPDFDPFDP be renowned for obeying rules, but they seem to be resisting the Ampel or traffic light. This cheery nickname for the left-of-centre coalition elected to run the central government two years ago refers to the colours of its three component parties: red for the Social Democrats (), yellow for the Free Democrats () and, unsurprisingly, green for the Greens. But judging by the elections held in two important states on October 8th, the German public seems less interested in the Ampel’s stop-and-go signals than in turning sharply to the right.Together, the central state of Hesse and the southern state of Bavaria—Germany’s biggest by area and its second-biggest by population—account for almost a quarter of the country’s inhabitants. Not surprisingly, their simultaneous elections are being seen as harbingers of broader political trends. These do not look good for Olaf Scholz, the chancellor, or his coalition. In both states all three Ampel parties fared worse than they did five years ago. Indeed the smallest of the three, the liberal-leaning , embarrassingly dropped below the 5% minimum needed to hold any seats in the Landtag, or state assembly, of Bavaria, and barely hung on in Hesse.