Donald Trump's return to the White House has darkened the mood in Germany a month before elections, as multiple crises shake the foundations on which Europe's biggest economy built its post-war prosperity.

Russia's war in Ukraine drove up energy prices, hammering the German economy just as Chinese demand for its exports has waned, while Trump's comeback throws doubt on the future of the NATO security umbrella.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz's three-party coalition buckled under the cascading challenges and broke apart on November 6, the day Trump won re-election, hurtling Germany into turmoil and towards early elections on February 23.

"The word 'crisis' doesn't begin to capture the magnitude of the challenges Germany faces," said analyst Michael Broening. "The country is being forced to redefine its economic, energy and security foundations."

The strong election frontrunner so far is conservative Friedrich Merz, the leader of Angela Merkel's CDU, who brings business world experience but, at age 69, is as yet untested in any government leadership post.

His CDU-CSU alliance is polling at around 30 percent, strongly ahead by about 15 percent of Scholz's Social........

© International Business Times