The whole mess seems to be borne out of a misunderstanding. Müntefering did not say "I mean it" before, but he meant it and he thought the other party executives knew. But they did not. This is becoming clearer as more and more of their statements are published. They only wanted to fire a warning shot, but this warning shot turned out to be more like the "warning shots" by London police officers on Jean Charles de Menezes. The whole party is in a shock now. You can be sure that there were no contingency plans for this eventuality. If Müntefering does not draw back his resignation, it will be difficult to piece everything back together again quickly.

I am curious about Merkel's strategic reaction.