Reaction in the German press: German newspapers lamented the lack of a clear result in Sunday's general election and several said the only way out of the stalemate was an unprecedented coalition of conservatives, liberals and ecologist Greens.
The front page of top-selling daily Bild showed a beaming Gerhard Schröder saluting his supporters alongside a picture of a grim-looking Angela Merkel under a front-page banner headline: "War of the chancellors!" The paper asked: "Who will rule Germany now? Are new elections the only way out of this chaotic result?" In an editorial, editor in chief Kai Diekmann expressed respect for Mr Schröder's performance but insisted there was a "majority for reform" in Germany and a coalition of CDU/CSU, FDP and Greens could push ahead with the necessary changes.
Munich's Sueeddeutsche Zeitung said the result was a catastrophe for the CDU/CSU and that Ms Merkel's chancellorship had ended even before it had begun. "The coming weeks will be the weeks of the Machiavellians and the grand strategists," the paper wrote in an editorial. The process would end either in a grand coalition or a grouping of SPD, FDP and Greens, with Mr Schröder remaining head of government.
"Game on," said the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, adding the Schröder era was now over but that nothing suggested any other party had won the trust that he and the SPD had lost.
Conservative daily Die Welt said the FDP's surprisingly good performance suggested voters were ready for reforms.
"Germany is confronted by big problems which require leadership and difficult decisions," the paper said. A "strangely fascinating" alliance of CDU/CSU, FDP and Greens could not be ruled out.
In its front-page headline, business daily Handelsblatt spoke of "Coalition Chaos in Berlin". Editor Bernd Ziesemer said a remarkable election campaign had ended with a fatal result for Germany: "Voters made CDU/CSU the strongest party, albeit with a narrow lead, but have denied it a clear reform mandate," Ziesemer said, adding that a grand coalition was the most likely outcome.
"Germany is still uncomfortable with change. After this election result one needs a great effort to imagine a reform scenario for Germany."
"Both losers want to be chancellor," said the Financial Times Deutschland on its front page, which also included an article detailing the "bitter disappointment" of German industry.
Ms Merkel would probably still become Germany's first woman chancellor, but her political end was nigh because she had failed even to better the losing share of the vote achieved by 2002 conservative challenger Edmund Stoiber, it added.
A coalition of CDU/CSU, FDP and Greens would be an experiment worth the effort, the paper said. That would allow Mr Schröeder, whose election performance has made him a hero in the SPD, to step down and take his place in history.
"The voters have spoken, but what they have said is not easy to understand," the Berliner Zeitung said in its editorial.
"It will be a good exercise in democracy for one or other of the leaders of the strongest parties to take the initiative and to fathom the coalition possibilities."