The warring parties’ plans for Germany’s economy are full of holes

“I HOPE YOU never have to see it like this again,” says Markus Quint, communications chief for Frankfurt’s Messe (exhibition centre), as he surveys 440,000 square metres of empty halls from a 22nd-floor terrace. When the pandemic struck last spring the Messe, which had welcomed nearly 2.5m visitors in 2019, had to shut for all business bar the digital sort. Worldwide revenues (the Messe has 29 subsidiaries) plunged from €736m ($870m) to €257m. Most of the 1,000-odd Frankfurt staff went on Kurzarbeitergeld, Germany’s much-imitated furlough scheme.

As Germans prepare to go to the polls on September 26th, recovery is glinting. Mr Quint says he could have “cried with joy” in July when the Messe reopened for its first physical exhibition, a trade fair for bike-part manufacturers. Bigger shows are in the works, including a return of the famous Frankfurt Book Fair next month.

Yet the threat from covid-19 has not evaporated. In the Messe’s case, border restrictions and quarantine rules make it near-impossible for what was once a large contingent of Asian and American visitors to attend the shows. Other businesses fear the return of some contact restrictions amid a fourth wave of infections and Germany’s worryingly low vaccination rate.

Hiccups in supply chains present a more serious drag on...