If you know nothing about what’s going on in Germany or why it’s important, you could do worse than start with Sign and Sight’s handy and succinct overview.

First up, is Merkel going to push for an extra round? She’s been dropping in the polls of late (which may be worrying the markets, plus getting into trouble over her flat tax proposals, recently so popular in the UK blogosphere – with more in-depth looks at her economic policy woes at Der Spiegel.

Meanwhile, the Guardian (or is it theguardian?) looks at what went wrong in Germany and why “Everyone is afraid”, even though the Financial Times reckons that Schr�der’s legacy will be a good one and Der Spiegel reckons Germany’s a lot better off than it thinks it is in a nice comparison of Merkel and Maggie (as in Thatcher, natch).

(As an odd aside – largely for the eurosceptics to get heated up – the eurosceptic Times wonders if the Turkish vote will save the pro-Turkish entry Schr�der, while Newropeans magazine bemoans the inability of non-German EU citizens to vote on Sunday, and in national elections full stop.)

Over at Fistful, Alex gives an overview of the squabbles over potential coalitions following Edward’s look at the implications of Merkel missing an overall majority and Tobias’ top-notch look at the problems with her campaign. It’s one of the better places to keep up with what’s going on.

As I finish up I also notice North Sea Diaries also has an election roundup with much good stuff – a bit of overlap, naturally, but certainly worth a look.