Even Germany has now joined the populist revolt against the political class

For you, Frau Merkel, ze war is over. Or, to put it another way, the endgame is just beginning. The most crassly inflated reputation in global politics took a beating in the German elections just concluded, as Angela Merkel’s CDU/SPD was punished by voters. Merkel is now so toxic that Martin Schulz, leader of the spectacularly humiliated SPD, claims he wants to go into opposition rather than rejoin the Grand Coalition that led Germany into cultural and demographic meltdown.

Do you remember the great hype earlier this year – that ecstatic moment when the powers-that-be proclaimed the end of the populist threat? This followed the “crushing” of Geert Wilders in the Netherlands when his Party for Freedom recorded its best electoral performance ever and increased its parliamentary seats to 20, out of 150.

Then came the similar humiliation of the Front National in France when Marine Le Pen failed to win the run-off in the presidential election, gaining just under 11 million votes or 34 per cent, while in the European Parliament her party occupies only one-third of France’s seats and, in municipal politics, has not much more than 2,000 councillors.

The rule of thumb used to be that if a so-called populist party gained half a dozen council seats the end of civilization was nigh. Under the new rule of thumb, post-Brexit and post-Trump, any election where the Right does not win outright power on a landslide is regarded as a victory for liberalism. So, the progressive consensus will presumably be overjoyed by the results of Sunday’s election in Germany.

Merkel’s CDU/CSU won 238 seats. Her former coalition partner, the SPD led by Martin Schulz, won 148. In humble third place came the vilified AfD party which, despite having been in existence for four whole years, enters parliament for the first time with only 94 seats.

How pathetic is that? Clearly this is another triumph for Angela Merkel, or would be if she could form a government. With Schulz insisting on taking over the role of official opposition – on the pretext that he must do so to prevent the AfD achieving that distinction on its first entry into parliament – Merkel’s only option is to form a so-called Jamaica coalition by combining with the free-market FDP, with 78 seats, and the Greens with 65. Such a coalition has never been attempted at federal level and would be, to say the least, unwieldy.

If the FDP came into government it would oppose French president Emmanuel Macron’s integrationist eurozone “reforms”, so the coherence of the European Union will hardly be improved by that prospect. This is another wheel coming off the EU bandwagon.

It is also the end of the era of Merkel dominance of Europe. It is difficult to see how future historians will assess the behaviour of a German chancellor who invited a million migrants into Germany – on no more than a personal whim – and then attempted to disperse them throughout other European countries such as Poland and Hungary, whom she had not consulted. Such conduct cannot reasonably be regarded as sane. Yet as late as last Sunday afternoon sycophantic media outlets were describing Merkel – the begetter of the worst post-war crisis in Europe – as an “anchor of stability”.

No wonder so many voters have no faith in the mainstream media or political class anymore. Politicians such as Merkel, bloated with entitlement, impose insane demographic policies on Europe and no mainstream commentators denounce them. When people whose lives have been blighted by the arrogant interventions of the likes of Merkel vote against her they are denounced as Nazis.

This election is a political earthquake in Germany. It continues the pattern of rejection of the European and British political class. The populist revolt is not subsiding: it is advancing. Yet still the Entitled Ones and their media sycophants will not face reality. In Britain the political class is nakedly attempting to reverse Brexit by proposing an empty ceremony in 2019, followed by three, four, five – who knows? – years of de facto EU membership, perpetual adherence to the Single Market if Labour gets its way, and so on.

There is a crunch coming, but it is pointless to warn the kamikaze politicians who have no concept of their own dissolution – like every effete culture that has been consigned to the dustbin of history. In the final analysis, we are ruled by idiots.

Merkel has been cut down to size, but that will not prevent her ducking and weaving to form a government with a view to confecting fresh disasters. Whom the gods wish to destroy…