Germany looks like an island of moderate politics in this world after 2008.
The 3 candidates - Armin Laschet, Annalena Baerbock and Olaf Scholz - are centrist. The parties are still looking for the median voter.
In other countries, parties are not seeking the median voter anymore, they are trying to increase the enthusiasm of their own base. Very left-wing and very right-wing emerged.
The reality is that class and cultural signalling matters a lot more than actual policies to people. Nobody cared that Trump's policies weren't that different from the normal corporatist Republican. And no one cares that Biden was just as "woke" in practice as Hillary Clinton. People just responded based on class cues.
The German Greens realized they can just win by being the party of bourgeoisie Westerners, which is the natural party of government in liberal "democracies". Actual policy isn't really relevant.
