Like A SQUIRMING Harry Houdini, Germany’s government has once again wriggled its way out of a straitjacket it applied to itself. On July 5th, having blown through one self-imposed deadline to conclude a draft budget for 2025, the coalition’s negotiators pulled an all-nighter to avoid missing a second. The result, said a bleary-eyed Olaf Scholz, Germany’s chancellor, was a “work of art”.