F RIEDRICH MERZ, who is likely to become Germany’s next chancellor, used his victory in Sunday’s elections to issue a remarkable warning to his compatriots. This was not the need to revive his country’s ailing economy,

The brake - part of Germany's response to the 2009 financial crisis under former chancellor Angela Merkel - limits the federal government's deficit to a mere 0.35 per cent of output. By comparison, last year the US budget deficit was more than 6 per cent of output.

The Christian Democratic Union has won a plurality in the Bundestag, preliminary exit polls suggested Sunday, while the far-right AfD has come in second.