When Neelie Kroes, the EU competition commissioner, said it would be "wonderful" if Angela Merkel won the German elections, she was expressing a view widely shared in Brussels and in many national capitals in Europe.

For many of those involved in the day-to-day running of the European Union, the hope is that Gerhard Schröder is ousted from power on Sunday, removing one of the central players in the EU's debilitating psychodrama.