Will the ‘sick man of Europe’ label stick to Germany this time around?

Its growth model seems kaput - but optimists point to how the economy confounded critics before

Germany is struggling. Its economy has shown no growth in the best part of two years. Its infrastructure is badly in need of modernisation. There are strikes on the railways. Protesting farmers have brought Berlin to a standstill. Deutsche Bank is cutting thousands of jobs. School standards are slipping. There is growing support for parties of the hard left and hard right. For the second time in a quarter of a century it is being labelled the sick man of Europe.

Germany has a history of economic problems breeding political extremism but talk of a return to the Weimar Republic is wildly overblown. The economy is flatlining, not collapsing. There is nothing to match the hyperinflation of 1923 or the mass unemployment of the early 1930s.