UPDATE (9/22) Election results are here

Today's round-up, straight from the German press

All the latest polls now show that Schroeder is in the lead. But the combination of the Social Democrats with the Greens is not a majority. If this is the outcome, can they govern with a legislative minority? Or will the third coalition partner be the PDS (former Communists) or the Free Democrats?

Stoiber's people have carefully retracted yesterday's statement that he wouldn't permit the U.S. to use its German bases for launching a unilateral attack against Iraq. In any event, existing treaties leave such things solely to America's discretion. The Social Democrats are making hay of the statement anyway. Historical note: The Germans have twice before prevailed on the U.S. not to fly over their country in the course of military action: supply operations to Israel in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, and the 1986 bombing of Libya.

Justice Minister Herta Daeubler-Gmelin doesn't dispute the reported quote comparing Bush to Hitler. Yet she insists that her comments were misinterpreted. It also came out that at the same trade union meeting she said that the US has a "lousy criminal justice system" and that Bush should have gone to jail for some of his financial transactions. At a news conference she attacked as slanderous political manoeuvering any insinuation that she would actually equate Hitler and Bush. She dismissed as comical the suggestion that she should resign. But it is reasonable to assume that her post-election job prospects are not secure.

Juergen Moellemann's colleagues in the FDP will apparently try to oust him from his party leadership posts immediately after the election. But Moellemann is fighting back with an open letter accusing the rest of the party leadership of harming the party's chances by attacking him. He seems to be used to this sort of thing. He was ousted from the party leadership in 1994 and in 1993 he was forced to resign as federal Commerce Minister for improper conduct.