That decision, however, seems out of touch against the backdrop of June’s European Parliament election. Voters in Germany delivered a crushing blow to the ruling coalition — made up of Scholz’s SPD, the Greens, and the pro-business Free Democratic Party — handing the SPD its worst national vote result in more than a century.

The country’s biggest opposition force — an alliance of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party CSU — is currently polling in first place with around 31 percent, while the far-right Alternative for Germany is second with around 17 percent, leaving ruling coalition…