There are no rotten boroughs on Germany’s red map, and no “loony left”, especially now that Mr Lafontaine is out of the picture.Mr Schroder’s task is to confront members with economic reality. “You cannot go against the economy,” he told the Finance Minister at last week’s acrimonious cabinet meeting. Mr Lafontaine accepted that and left.So, will Mr Schroder now swim with the economy, give business all the tax breaks it is asking for, and reverse the trend of rising unemployment? That is, after all, the electoral mandate he cites in arguments with his less voter-friendly colleagues. Maybe.Mr Lafontaine’s tax reforms, universally denounced as a dud, will go through the upper house of parliament this week No, they will not be scrapped. Mr Schroder has talked “adjustments” when the second phase is unveiled later this year.Tinkering, of course, will not do, as Mr Schroder himself might have told any number of election rallies last year. There had been too much pussyfooting in Germany during the long Kohl era.

What the country needed, he would add, was little short of a revolution. Not until the cost of German labour is radically reduced will Germany regain its competitiveness.But Mr Schroder is no revolutionary, not even a radical. He is the most German of leaders, for ever seeking consensus and negotiating compromises that take the edge off any upheaval. It is against his instincts to go against vested interests or voter sentiments In other words, he is a pragmatic politician.

Or an opportunist, if you happen to disapprove.His years as Prime Minister of Lower Saxony are instructive. He was good to the region’s biggest employer, Volkswagen, and good to the unions Both profited from his consummate deal-making But his home region still did not prosper. His legacy is middling levels of unemployment, economic output, and mediocrity according to just about every other index. Nothing to shout about, but enough to keep getting him re-elected, with an increased share of votes every time.Now this politician, who has turned the attainment of the average into a credo, is running Europe’s biggest economy.