In the long arc of postwar European democracy, Germany has served as the continent's stabilizing anchor — a nation that traded volatility for consensus and prosperity for patience. Now, sixteen months into his chancellorship, Friedrich Merz holds the lowest approval rating any German leader has recorded, while the far-right AfD rises to fill the vacuum his CDU once occupied. The crisis is not merely one man's political misfortune; it is a symptom of a deeper unraveling of the centrist compact that has governed Western democracies since 1945, arriving at precisely the moment Europe can least af