As Gerhard Schroeder went to the podium last week to announce his timeline for calling a vote of confidence in parliament -- one he deliberately plans to lose so that new elections can be called -- some feared he was about to resign. And in a way he did, our parent magazine writes this week. His statement could also be read as "an exact timeframe for Gerhard Schroeder's departure from power." Here are the extended bits for all you quote whores out there:

SPIEGEL: Wherever the chancellor turns up these days, his calls to battle appear to be thinly veiled farewell addresses. Realistic observers know that he is at the end of the road -- the trust that was placed in him now appears to have evaporated. His chances of re-election are so low that he can't even seriously believe in a comeback himself. He is surrounded by conservatives in the Bundesrat, Germany's upper legislative chamber, trapped by disappointed people in his own party and bear hugged so hard by Leftists that he couldn't even run if he wanted to - this all shows that Schroeder's days are numbered.

In retrospect, it will be even easier to recognize that his call for new elections was nothing other than a disguised resignation attempt. The only difference is that someone like Schroeder, who received his mandate from voters and not from the party, wants to see his term as chancellor end at the polls. Formally, the vote of confidence will go to the members of parliament, but in reality he's putting it to German voters."

Schroeder's long-time junior coalition partner, the Greens, feel railroaded by the Chancellor's decision to hold early elections, as this shortens their mandate. In a recent SPIEGEL interview, the head of Schroeder's Social Democratic Party (SPD), Franz Muentefering, said the coalition between the two parties had been a "coincidence." And Schroeder himself confided to a reporter at the weekly newspaper Die Zeit that the whole approach the Social Democrats and Greens have taken has proven to be very different from what Germany actually needs. The Greens, who for years liked to think of themselves as the government's reform engine, found Schroeder's comments to be "brazen." Whatever may come of relations between the SPD and Greens, their days running Germany together appear to be drawing to close.

SPIEGEL: Farewell hangs in the air in the German capital right now. A few weeks before the planned dissolution of the Bundestag, the SPD and Green coalition appears to not have much enough energy to even govern. Schroeder may not even issue a budget proposal for 2006.

Obviously, this isn't shaping up to be Gerhard Schroeder's political summer of love. (1:30 p.m. CET)

Giving Schroeder the Left Hook

Another development that could become an Achilles heel for Schroeder's re-election prospects is the new left-wing party recently established by Oskar Lafontaine, the renegade former head of the chancellor's party, the SPD. The new, pro-labor Election Alternative for Labor and Social Equality party (WASG) joined forces this week with the Party of Social Democratic Socialism to form the United Left/PDS Election Alliance. Lafontaine wants to lead the new alliance, but both parties will still be marked by major regional differences.