The way out being mooted by some in the PdL, as an alternative to elections, is a government of the existing coalition plus the UDC and perhaps one or both of two small parties loosely allied to it, in a so-called "Third Force".
We need an alternative to elections!
And, as Die Zeit recently pointed out, Mr Schröder has an appealing alternative to another election victory: Viktoria, the three-year-old orphan from Russia whom he and his wife adopted last summer.
Specifically, they indicate that the alternative to the election system is for judges to be selected by a white-shoe law firm from a city bar or through some other system of appointments infused by politics.
He insisted that while "austerity has failed" the nationalists offer a "real alternative" to the election.
But in an interview with the BBC's Jonathan Head, the Prime Minister's Office Minister Niwatthamrong Boonsongpaisan said reform in the country was appropriate, but that there was no legal alternative to an election.
The alternative to a new election would be a calling for a parliamentary vote of no-confidence, which would require a simple majority.
The centre-right Social Democrats, the main opposition party, and the smaller right-wing Popular Party, have announced that they will get together, as the Democratic Alternative, to fight the election.For now, Mr Guterres probably has little to worry about.
As Mr Ozawa looks set to be re-elected unopposed as the party's leader on September 21st, rumours of a coalition split may still be premature.Mr Aso's alternative to an early election is to sit tight, ride out the LDP's current turmoil and hope that the party's prospects have improved, if only slightly, by mid-2009.
This Coalition collected around two fundamental concepts; that the opposition parties would act together to vote down the government within the week, and that they would put a Coalition government plan forward as a viable alternative to having another election.
