Germany’s ruling coalition marks its first anniversary

16-year run as Germany’s chancellor was always going to be a hard act to follow. But her triumphant exit was not the sole reason why the that clomped onto the stage last December 8th looked bound to put up a poor show. Germans had dubbed the wobbly-looking coalition , the traffic-light. This referred to the colours of its component parties—red Social Democrats (), yellow Free Democrats () and the Greens. Yet it also hinted at mixed signals and policy jams. It was no help that the Ampel’s leading man was Olaf Scholz, a dry Social Democrat whose electoral success owed less to his charms than to his opponents’ gaffes. And then, weeks into the Ampel’s opening run, Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, set the theatre on fire. Yet Mr Scholz’s ensemble has weathered and even emerged stronger from a turbulent first year. Not only has the Ampel steered Europe’s richest, most populous country through a crisis as challenging as any that faced Mrs Merkel. It has also set Germany—so far gingerly rather than firmly, it is true—on a course towards potentially far-reaching reform. The coalition has shown it can be supple when needed, with each of its parts bending towards compromise. And Mr Scholz has proved an abler leader than many expected of a weaned-on-a-pickle former mayor of Hamburg. “I think Scholz has the coalition quite well in his grip,” says Jana Puglierin of the European Council on Foreign Relations, a think-tank. “He’s made it clear that he is the one calling the shots.”