Just before the German elections on Sunday, the main theme of international commentary was leadership—Angela Merkel’s in Germany, and Germany’s in Europe. Indeed, Merkel, the most powerful German politician since Helmut Kohl, has predictably won her third term as chancellor and can rule, in theory, till 2017. Germany itself, long Europe’s most powerful economy, has emerged from the euro crisis also politically peerless—its historical tandem with France consigned to history books. As a result, there have been plenty of expectations and recommendations as to what Merkel and Germany, both seemingly sovereign, could and should do.

These expectations and recommendations need to be tempered. Merkel has lost her Christian Democratic Union’s preferred partner in the governing coalition, the Free Democrats, and will have to seek alliance either with her main rival, the Social Democrats, or the Greens. The way it is constructed, the German political system abhors one-party rule, even for a four-year term. The only time a party (also CDU) was allowed to govern alone was in 1957. Even more fundamentally, the German democracy makes sure that its leaders, on important policy issues, are closely bound by the prevailing popular views. Thus, Germany’s strategic abstention, which my colleague Jan Techau mentioned in his brilliant New York Times piece, is not just Merkel’s choice: it is the current attitude of the German people.