18日に行われたドイツ総選挙は、アンゲラ・メルケル党首率いるキリスト教民主・社会同盟（CDU・CSU）が、シュレーダー首相率いる社民党（SPD）をリードした──わずか3議席で。
Merkel ahead in tight German vote [BBC NEWS]
Merkel Wins Most Votes in Germany Election [Yahoo! News]
PROVISIONAL ELECTION RESULTS
CDU/CSU: 35.2% (225 seats)
SPD: 34.3% (222)
Free Democrats: 9.8% (61)
Left Party: 8.7% (54)
Greens: 8.1% (51)
したがって「完全な勝利」とは程遠い。メルケル、シュレーダー両者とも「勝利宣言」をしている模様。
ということで、今度は連立工作だ。ここでは10％近くを得た「我らが」ギド・ヴェスターヴェレ率いる自由民主党（FDP）の動向が注目される、
Merkel Leads in Close Vote[Deutsche Well]
Traffic-light coalition?
Experts say the only possibility would be a so-called "traffic light" coalition with the SPD, Greens and the free-market liberal FDP, which surprised everyone by garnering 10.1 percent of the vote.
FDP leaders, however, said they would rather stay in opposition than join a government with Schröder and the Greens.
"We don't have the majority for the innovative, necessary reforms needed to change our country," said FDP deputy leader Wolfgang Gerhardt. "That holds us up and it holds the country up."
For weeks, the CDU and FDP had been planning a coalition government that would take an aggressive approach to trimming Germany's bloated welfare system and reforming the labor market to encourage investment and growth. With the CDU only winning 35.2 percent of the vote, such a coalition is now impossible.
"While Germans understand that they need fundamental economic reform, if they want to tackle unemployment, they don't want radical economic reform and don't want to give up their benefits," said Karen Donfried, senior director of the German Marshall Fund in Washington D.C. in an interview with DW-WORLD. "I think Schröder was able to play very well off of that."
SPD（赤）と緑の党（Greens）とFDP（黄）の組み合わせが浮上している──その党のイメージカラーの組み合わせから、まるで「信号機連立」だと。
しかしヴェスターヴェレ党首は、いまのところ、CDUとの連立を優先すると述べている。
ではSPD、緑の党、左派政党（Left Party）による「オール左派」の組み合わせか。でも、
Other possibilities were an all-left government of Social Democrats, Greens and the Left Party, but a Left Party leader, Oskar Lafontaine, ruled out joining such a coalition.
じゃあ、結局、「大連立」に落ち着くのだろうか。
