Olaf Scholz has lost a vote of confidence in his leadership and Germany now faces its first election of the truly post-Angela Merkel era.

Now Mrs Merkel’s legacy is tarnished, Germany is in recession, and the days when its economy was powered by cheap Russian gas are over.

Old certainties no longer hold true, and neither do old alliances.

Mr Scholz won the 2021 election becoming chancellor after campaigning as a Merkel 2.0 continuity candidate.

At the time, the polls showed that if “Mutti” had decided to run again and extend her 16 years in office, she would have easily won.

Mr Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) formed a coalition with the Greens and pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) and took power in December 2021, as Mrs Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) trooped into opposition for the first time since 2005.

Friedrich Merz, the man expected to be chancellor after February’s election, was chosen as CDU leader at the end of the year. Mr Merz, 69, a conservative and no Merkelian centrist, moved fast to distance himself from a woman who had sidelined him during her dominance of the CDU.