It is extremely unlikely that Schröder would make a coalition with the Left/PDS party. There is just too much personal animosity between him and Lafontaine and politically, he just couldn't do the reforms he believes are necessary. And an SPD without Schröder? There is a certain sense of betrayal in the rank and file: The left of the SPD accepted Schröder in 1998 because they were sure that Lafontaine would act as check and balance on him, and then when things started to get difficult, Lafontaine just quit instead of fighting for an equilibrium.

And with his move for early elections, Schröder has shown that he is not willing to stay in power without being able to accomplish the reforms he deems necessary. The Left party would never accept this, so other models like toleration of a minority government will not happen.

Other developments today:

• The Constitutional Court rejected a plea that would have forced the federal election supervisor to withhold the results of the September 18 election until the by-election in Dresden was finished. In Dresden, the election was moved back to October 2nd because of the death of one of the candidates. If the outcome next Sunday is close, Dresden will probably overrun by campaigns trying to sway the outcome. The petitioners argued that this would give voters in Dresden an unfair tactical advantage. The Court rejected the plea for technical reasons (you can only challenge election procedures after the election), so it might later on agree that this is unfair.


• Criticism of Merkel's pick for finance minister, Kirchhoff, and the campaign tactic continues.


• New polls show no big new movements, but 30% of the electorate are still undecided... It will be interesting to see how big the participation will be,  what effect this has on the results and how the undecided will break in the end.