I WAS relaxing on a bench in a park in Berlin a few weeks ago and couldn’t help but overhear a little domestic scene as it played out on the seat next to me.

“But what if he meets someone else while I’m away?” a tearful teenager clearly still learning about the ups and downs of love was asking her mother.

“He won’t,” replied Mum, putting a reassuring arm around the shoulders of her daughter. “He’s not a stupid boy. Everything will be alright, darling. Remember, Mum knows best.”

I thought of this conversation yesterday as Germans went to the polls to elect members of their parliament, the Bundestag, and return Angela Merkel as chancellor for the fourth time, since in many ways the little bench scene has come to represent the relationship they have built with their leader over the last 12 years.

Mrs Merkel’s nickname in the press has long been “Mutti”, or Mummy, and in the past this was predominantly used by critics to belittle and mock what they viewed as her pedestrian and plodding approach to politics; they laughed out loud at the uninspiring lack of vision and those unglamorous, Mumsie trouser suits.

Not for the first time, however, such critics were seriously underestimating the former scientist from East Germany, for in the last year the true meaning of the nickname has become clear: Mutti Merkel is the protector.

And that is surely the most powerful of political attributes at a time when Germans look around them and see those they regard as their peers, the British and the Americans, turn in upon themselves after opting for extreme solutions in the form of Brexit and Trump. And with a possible nuclear confrontation on the horizon over North Korea, and the Russians increasingly lording it over the West, they increasingly need a reassuring arm round put their shoulders.

Mrs Merkel has been relied upon time and time again to do just that, with domestic policies that have ensured Germany keeps living the good life even as its European neighbours feel the pinch.

And, as other countries demand change, Germany yearns to stay the same.

This is central, of course, to why Mrs Merkel won another four years in power, albeit with fewer votes. She ran a low-key campaign that concentrated on the adequate rather than the spectacular, focusing on economic prosperity, general decency and fairness, the quiet and cosy contentment associated with the German term “heimat”, or homeland. Let’s forget about grand visions for now, the campaign seemed to say, Mutti knows what she’s doing.

There have, of course, been genuine concerns around the rising popularity of the far-right, anti-immigration, anti-EU party Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD), and many believe this is why Mrs Merkel’s right-of-centre Christian Democrat party controversially used the colours of the German flag in its visuals, breaking a taboo that has been in place since the Second World War.

AfD did indeed win seats in the Bundestag for the first time - more than 90 out of 630 - but I still believe the Chancellor triumphed in the ideological war posed by their rise, signifying a victory for the relatively tame notion of heimat over the far-more menacing and unsavoury “vaterland” or fatherland, with its Nazi associations, which is openly espoused by AfD. So, as well as protecting the German people against the pain of the outside world, she is arguably also protecting them from the temptation to vote for a return to past; she is saving them from themselves.

But perhaps what is most extraordinary about Angela Merkel’s appeal is its width and depth. Germans of all backgrounds and both genders trust her with the country’s future, and young people voted Merkel in their droves. In what must surely be a unique phenomenon in western politics, the long-serving, conservative incumbent is the cool choice.

I asked various German friends this last week why this might be the case and they spoke of the esteem many young people on the left hold Mrs Merkel in for allowing a million refugees to enter the country in 2015, her strong stand against Donald Trump and the leading role she is seen to play in Europe and beyond. The fact that youth unemployment is practically non-existent in Germany also helps.

Even Mrs merkel’s critics admire her ability to be everything to everybody; if that means representing the least worst option, so be it. And, since Germany has proportional representation, every vote counts.

During the recent UK election, Theresa May was widely mocked for her grating, robotic “strong and stable” refrain. Coming from her mouth it sounded not only trite but laughable. While Mrs May could only dream of being regarded in this way, Mrs Merkel has quietly embodied both attributes for the last 12 years. It’s no wonder the good people of Germany continue to believe Mutti knows best.