IT WAS NOT just any German regional election. The vote on September 22nd in Brandenburg, one of Germany’s 16 Länder, was the last big statewide election before the federal one next autumn. Dietmar Woidke, the state’s popular premier, had vowed to quit if his Social Democratic Party (SPD) did not come first, ahead of the hard-right Alternative for Germany (AfD). The results were seen as an omen of what lies in store next year for Olaf Scholz, the embattled chancellor, who lives in Potsdam, Brandenburg’s capital.