Elections need not be exciting to be important. Germany is soon to go the polls. The rest of the world is stifling a yawn. Fans of politics-as-pandemonium are making a mistake. Europe is in better shape than for some time, but it can no longer assume its prosperity and security. Dull is just what is needed in the continent’s most powerful nation.

For a temporary refugee from Britain’s Brexit convulsions, this week’s televised debate between chancellor Angela Merkel and Martin Schulz, her Social Democratic party challenger, was jarringly tame. The shock would have been greater for those in Washington accustomed to the histrionics fired daily from Donald Trump’s smartphone. 

Where were the personal abuse, the invented facts and casual lies? Had neither candidate seen Mr Trump take on Hillary Clinton or France’s Emmanuel Macron face the xenophobic invective of Marine Le Pen? Had they not heard British politicians lie about the vast riches that would flow from Brexit? Try as they might, Ms Merkel and Mr Schulz could not raise the temperature.What separates them politically is a gully rather than an ideological ravine.