For years, Germany had been seen as the leading light of Europe — both politically and economically powerful, and with a figurehead in the form of Angela Merkel who was instantly recognizable on the continent and internationally.

Her retirement, a comparatively unstable successor government led by the center-left's Olaf Scholz, and the difficult passage through the economic turmoil of the COVID-19 pandemic, saw Germany's European star dull.

Across the border, Emmanuel Macron — no stranger to his own domestic political battles — has emerged as Europe's most important national leader amid the global shocks wrought by the second Trump administration and its hostile posture towards traditional European allies.

Germany is without a government, but is expected to return to a "Grand Coalition" led by Friedrich Merz and his center-right Union with a junior partner in the center-left Social Democrats.

But while these establishment parties thrash out the terms of their political alliance, Europe's most powerful economy is stuck with a caretaker government during Donald Trump's

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