GERMANY’S DEAD-EYED bureaucrats are rarely the object of citizens’ affections. But could some be seeking to subvert democracy? Such was the concern of Michael Ebling, the interior minister of Rhineland-Palatinate, when he declared that members of the hard-right Alternative for Germany (afd) would be barred from public-sector jobs in his state. “Anyone who places themselves in the service of this state must remain loyal to the constitution,” he thundered. What ensued was, as the Germans call it, ein Shitstorm. Mr Ebling wavered, clarifying that afd members would be individually assessed rather than collectively banned. But the case encapsulates the struggle of Germany’s centrists to lock out an extremist party that is becoming part of the mainstream.