HERE ARE A FEW THOUGHTS to ponder regarding Germany’s descent into political kaos:

AT WHAT POINT did Chancellor Gerhard Schröder deem that moving up elections by a year to this September would increase his chances of winning? After all, the process of moving up national elections is not that easy. First Schröder needs to call for a vote of confidence within the Bundestag. He needs to lose this vote, thereby resulting in the dissolution of his Social Democratic/Green coalition government–and thus the need for a new election. If the opposition Christian Democrats controlled parliament, this would be easy. But Schröder’s party currently holds a seven-seat advantage–meaning he needs eight of his colleagues to vote against him. Still following? While it normally shouldn’t be a problem for the chancellor to have his loyal supporters do his bidding, there is some speculation that for the younger members of his party, the last thing they would want is to dissolve the government and along with it, quite possibly, their pensions. So then what?