The only thing clear so far in the German election is is that Angela Merkel had a disasterous result. Widely exepected to win easily, her conservative CDU/CSU ended up a hairs-breadth plurality.

Things may have turned sour for her when she appointed flat-tax advocate Prof. Paul Kirchhof as her potential finance minister.

This allowed Gerhard Schröder to attack Merkel for apparently favouring radically neo-liberal economic agenda. It seems to have worked.

Update: Michael Stickings of Moderate Voice has a similar view.