Chancellor Angela Merkel's Germany (prosperous, fed up with EU bailouts) and her Europe (hesitant, wracked by austerity) will be put to a vote in German general elections on Sunday (22 September).
Polls tip her to win a third term and to form a coalition with the centre-left SPD party.
But southern EU countries might be hoping for a socialist Chancellor, who would soften austerity and agree to joint EU borrowing, or "eurobonds."
Meanwhile, several big EU dossiers - such as ...
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Andrew Rettman is EUobserver's foreign editor, writing about foreign and security issues since 2005. He is Polish, but grew up in the UK, and lives in Brussels. He has also written for The Guardian, The Times of London, and Intelligence Online.