Incoming German chancellor Angela Merkel.
Photograph: Marcus Brandt/Getty ImagesGermany is now entering its sixth week since the election without a new government in power. As episodes of post-vote uncertainty go, this is now starting to look like a long time. The US election of 2000 was settled after five weeks. Supporters of Viktor Yuschenko in Ukraine were on the streets of Kiev for less than a fortnight before the supreme court ruled in favour of a fresh ballot.
The votes are not in dispute and neither is what the government should look like. Germany's two biggest parties were separated by four parliamentary seats without a clear majority for either. After realising they had no better option, party leaders decided on a bipartisan grand coalition led by a Christian Democrat chancellor with the Social Democrats in control of most of the key ministries.
The problem is who should - or wants to - get what job.
By the time Gerhard Schröder steps down as chancellor on November 22, a new government is supposed to be in place, but there is a sense of crisis surrounding the formation of the administration of Angela Merkel.
Edmund Stoiber, leader of the Christian Democrat's Bavarian sister party, last night announced he would not serve under Ms Merkel. It followed the resignation of Franz Müntefering the previous day from the chairmanship of the Social Democrats when his candidate for the party's position of general secretary was defeated by a leftwinger. It is not clear if Mr Müntefering will continue as Ms Merkel's vice-chancellor, but the move was enough for Mr Stoiber to say that he did not now believe the grand coalition had a future if the Social Democrats were drifting to the left.
Of course, Mr Stoiber could also be thinking of himself here. Ms Merkel defeated him as Christian Democrat candidate for chancellor and, in the event that the grand coalition collapses, fresh elections could give him a second chance. Or he may just not want to be associated with an administration in which he has little belief of success, and may feel he would be better off out of it all and in Munich.
Bild - Germany's equivalent to Britain's Sun - today referred to Germany as a "banana republic". An exaggeration, but one that more than hints at frustration.
In the short term, Mr Stoiber's Bavarian colleague Michael Glos will take up the vacated post of economics minister, and the Social Democrats have still to decide who will succeed Mr Müntefering as their chairman. Matthias Platzeck, the 51-year-old governor of Brandenburg, the state that surrounds Berlin, is the favourite of the party leadership and is likely to be formally nominated tonight.
Ms Merkel insists that turmoil on the centre-left will not derail the grand coalition, but it is plain, overwhelming even, that the stability of her government depends on stability in the Social Democrats.
The defeat of Mr Müntefering's candidate hinted at one problem - that some in the Social Democrats will move to the left as penance for a governing partnership with the right, creating legitimacy problems for ministers in Ms Merkel's government. But other problems, especially on matters such as international relations, are likely to crop up. When a government takes this long to form, its long-term prospects must be in doubt.
