I know a 22-year-old who has been earning money as an entrepreneur since he was 15. Rather than going to university, he founded a successful company. Now, he wants to emigrate. “In Germany, you are more likely to be envied than appreciated,” he explained to me. Some of his friends have already emigrated to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, and he is now weighing up whether to join them in Dubai or head for Singapore instead.

Another friend of mine is a serial entrepreneur and has founded eight companies, creating lots of jobs in the process. “If a leftist government is elected on Sept. 26, I will definitely emigrate,” he told me. Like many, he is afraid that the general election in September could result in a majority for Germany’s three major left-wing parties: the Greens, the SPD, and Die Linke. According to the latest polls, these three parties could well gain enough votes to form a government.