In German you can create new words almost ad infinitum, usually by bolting existing words together. One way to understand Germany’s elections of September 24 is therefore to look at the country’s current political vocabulary, from Genderwahn to merkeln.

Autoland (literally, land of cars). On the upside, the car industry is Germany’s economic motor. On the downside, the Autolobby is also often Germany’s political motor, much as Wall Street is in the US or the City in the UK. Germany’s Autokartell (car cartel) has its own revolving door with politics. Most blatantly, Matthias Wissmann, president of the automobile industry’s trade body, is a former Christian Democratic transport minister. The German foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel (sometimes known as Siggi Pop) was a government representative on Volkswagen’s supervisory board and later worked for a communications firm that advised the company.

Cosseted by government, car companies felt free to lie for years about their diesel emissions, until Dieselgate (or der Abgasskandal) broke in 2015. The Autolobby also moderates the much-trumpeted German Energiewende