When Donald Trump won the US election in November, Germany’s government imploded.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz sacked his finance minister, collapsed his dysfunctional coalition government and blew a gaping hole in the leadership of the EU.

On Sunday, Germans head to the polls for one of the most consequential elections of recent times in the EU’s largest economy and most influential country alongside France.

The war in Ukraine remains deeply divisive. The far-Right AfD is enjoying unprecedented popularity after a string of terror attacks. The economy is in trouble, and now faces US tariffs.

“The top two topics are the economy and migration,” said Jessica Berlin, a senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis (Cepa) think tank.

“We’re seeing security take a prominence in the debate and discussion like never before, it’s ranked third in terms of what German voters are concerned about their choices.”

So what will this mean for Europe?

“You could say that when Germany sneezes, Europe catches a cold,” an EU diplomat told the Telegraph.

Who will win?

Mr Scholz, 66, the centre-Left Chancellor and leader of the SPD, is polling in third at 16 per cent of the vote and is seen as a dead man walking.

Friedrich Merz, 69, the leader of the centre-Right CDU, is the favourite to be the next Chancellor with a predicted lead of about 29 per cent.

The Eurosceptic, pro-Putin and anti-migrant AfD is polling in second with 21 per cent, although it is almost certain to be shut out of any future coalition talks because of the “firewall” against extremists in a country haunted by its Nazi past.