With four days to go until national elections, Germans are obsessing about what their future government might look like. It's trickier than it might seem. That's because in Germany, voters elect parties, not people, and a party needs a majority to rule. To get a majority, two or sometimes three parties team up to form a coalition. That's been the case for the past seven years, during which the Social Democrats (SPD) have governed with the Green Party. These days, everyone has their eyes on the polls, particularly since as of last week, almost one third of German voters still had not made up their minds. The most recent estimates from Emmid show the Christian Democrats/Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) with 42 percent, the SPD with 33.5 percent, the newly formed Left Party with 8 percent, the Greens with 7 percent and the business-friendly Free Democrats (FDP) with 6.5 percent.

Given the numbers, there are four possible combinations for a future government. The first -- a CDU/FDP combination -- is what the conservatives dream, but is looking less and less likely, given the polls. The second -- an SPD/Green/Left Party combination -- has been rejected by SPD leaders, including Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, as out of the question. The third -- an SPD/Green/FDP combination -- has been ruled out by the FDP. And the fourth -- a grand coalition of the SPD and the CDU -- has been snubbed by everyone as an ineffectual solution to Germany's problems. Angela Merkel, the CDU candidate for chancellor, has gone so far as to reject the possibility entirely. So what will happen? Who will have to eat their words?

"If the pollsters are right and politicians on all sides are not lying, then there will soon be no government in Germany," the leftist Tageszeitung writes on Wednesday. No majority looks likely for either major grouping and everyone is shutting out the possibility of working with each other. The trickiest vote of all would be to lend a vote to the FDP, the paper says. While they have ruled out a coalition with the SPD and Greens for now, no one really can predict what they will do when actually offered the choice of governing with them. "Voters can have no idea what to expect," the paper laments.

The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung offers a trajectory of the CDU/CSU's fall from grace since May, when they were so popular they almost didn't need help from the FDP to seal a majority. "How different things now look," the paper says. One of the chief culprits is Edmund Stoiber, the outspoken and pompous governor of Bavaria, who heads the CSU and who waged his own failed campaign against Schröder in 2002. Notably, Stoiber made remarks that alienated voters in the eastern states and neutralized Merkel's influence there (as an easterner herself). The second pitfall was what the paper calls the "Kirchhof disaster," a reference to the controversial former Constitutional Court judge and law professor Paul Kirchhof, who Merkel picked as her shadow finance minister. By aiming at Kirchhof, who favors a flat tax, the SPD diverted voters' frustration over the current government's failures and painted Kirchhof as a villain ready to abandon the German social state.

That depiction may not be accurate, but the paper blames Kirchhof for allowing the myth to stick. "He is guilty of giving the impression that the cost of his simple tax model will fall on German nurses" and others who work shift-oriented jobs that currently entitle them to tax breaks, the paper says. To his credit, Kirchhof has tried to defend the plan -- he insists it will not unfairly hurt working class people -- but in recent days Merkel has distanced herself from him. "The impression remains that Kirchhof has announced plans Merkel is too afraid to speak about." And, says the paper, in this final phase of the election fight, "it is ideas less than feelings that make a difference. Should the chancellor, whose faults and strengths are well-known and who appears so statesmanlike, really be replaced by a woman whose positions are still not entirely clear?"

Germany's paper of record, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, echoes the SZ insisting that "in the few days left before the election, new arguments no longer play a role. Impression is now everything," it writes. Currently, the CDU/CSU is suffering from the bad impression Kirchhof has made. The question is, how will they get out of it? One answer seems to be the resurrection of the once-shunned, but still popular, former minister Friedrich Merz from his "sulking corner." A fiery speaker and finance whiz with an uncanny talent for demolishing his opponents' arguments, Merz has had personal differences with Merkel in the past, and in 2002 she ousted him as parliamentary group leader following the election. Merz responded by leaving the government. Now, Merkel hopes he will overshadow Kirchhof and help the CDU/CSU gain lost votes. Indeeed, says the paper, Merz is wasting no time trying to re-translate Kirchhof's ideas to make them palatable for the people. But his entry may come too late.

In a somewhat unusual move, the business daily The Financial Times Deutschland opts for the provocative headline, "Horror stories before midnight." The paper says all talk of oddball coalitions (SPD/Greens/FDP and SPD/Greens/Left Party) is just ghoulish fantasy designed to scare voters. "One coalition is as fanciful as the other," it writes. "But both are giving the big political parties a bit more momentum in the final race." Calling up the spectre of a possible coalition with the FDP may help the SPD/Greens chalk up the votes of those who fear such an odd threesome. Likewise, fear that the SPD, Greens, and Left Party could rule together may push voters support the CDU/CSU. In reality, says the paper -- which endorsed the FDP on Monday -- only two real outcomes are possible: CDU/CSU/FDP or a grand coalition. "It would be a sensation if Red-Green (SPD-Green) managed to stay in power."

Still, no paper can hold a candle to the tabloid Bild when it comes to provocative, even saucy headlines. Bild almost outdoes itself in the category of inflammatory anti-foreigner provocation by showing Schroeder against the backdrop of a Turkish flag next to the headline, "Will Turks Decide the Election?" The paper claims Schroeder could get a 1.2 percent boost if he wins the support of Germany's 600,000 eligible Turkish voters. The chancellor has been one of the biggest advocates of Turkish accession to the European Union. "So now Turkey is becoming an election issue," the paper writes. Those 600,000 German Turks might decide who governs Germany. "It's no surprise, then, that SPD and Greens are targeting Turks in their campaign for votes," along the lines of "your vote for SPD and Greens is a vote for easier integration and Turkish EU membership." But, insists commentator Dirk Hoeren, "anyone who abuses the German-Turkish minority like this for election reasons will do a disservice to German-Turkish relations." Huh?