By the time Germany's main parties met yesterday for their post-mortem sessions on Sunday's election, it was already clear that the new government will be a coalition of Social Democrats (SPD) and Greens.
Final results that came in overnight gave the two parties a majority of 21 seats in the new Bundestag, twice that enjoyed by the outgoing centre-right government.
Mr Gerhard Schroder - the man Germans are already calling "the new chancellor" - told a press conference yesterday afternoon that, with such a comfortable majority, coalition talks with the Greens were the next logical step.
Many within Mr Schroder's SPD would prefer an alliance with the Christian Democrats (CDU) but the latter party, still recovering from its worst electoral performance since 1949, is determined to go into opposition.
The same is true of the smaller of the defeated governing parties, the Liberal Free Democrats (FDP), leaving the Greens as Mr Schroder's only available partners.
For their part, the Greens are united in their eagerness to share power and they named their negotiating team yesterday before they received an offer of talks.
But negotiations will not be easy, not least because both sides will be determined to avoid future arguments by agreeing as much as possible in advance.
Neither side has laid down strict preconditions but the broad lines of the new government's policies are already evident.
The Greens were founded in 1983 primarily as an anti-nuclear movement and the party is determined to close down all Germany's nuclear power stations.
The SPD shares this aim but insists that it cannot be realised immediately and could take decades.
The SPD chairman, Mr Oskar Lafontaine, indicated on Sunday night that a compromise is possible, perhaps involving the closure of each nuclear installation as soon as current operating contracts expire.
For its part, the SPD sees its primary task as fighting unemployment and it will resist any Green proposals which threaten jobs, including a Green plan to triple the price of petrol within 10 years. But the SPD will consider introducing "green taxes" to reward the environmentally virtuous and punish polluters.
Both sides agree that Germany's antiquated citizenship laws should be changed to allow all children born in Germany to become citizens and to make it easier for foreign residents to adopt German citizenship.
And a new government can be expected to take tougher action against racist thugs who terrorise foreigners.
Women can expect a fairer deal under a red-green government and Germany could become the first major European country to end discrimination against same-sex partnerships by putting gay couples on an equal footing with those who are married.
Mr Lafontaine is expected to become finance minister, a potentially pivotal position in the new administration and Mr Schroder confirmed yesterday that Mr Jost Stollmann, a businessman who is not a member of the SPD, will also occupy a ministerial post.
The Greens can expect three ministries, among them the foreign ministry which is expected to be filled by their parliamentary leader, Mr Joschka Fischer.
Mr Fischer declined to speculate on his future yesterday but insisted that Germany's allies have nothing to fear from the Greens.
Mr Fischer is an enthusiastic European who supports Germany's membership of NATO and the participation of Bundes wehr soldiers in UN peace-keeping missions. But his appointment as foreign minister could mean that Germany will become a tougher defender of human rights throughout the world.
The direction of the new government will depend not only on the relationship between the two parties but on the dynamics of Mr Schroder's relationship with Mr Lafontaine.
Mr Schroder's remarkable victory has placed him in a strong position to push through his centrist, business-friendly agenda of modernisation and innovation.
But Mr Lafontaine retains control of the party and he can be relied on to resist a dramatic lurch to the right.
Mr Schroder models himself on Britain's Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, but Mr Lafontaine is more impressed by the French Prime Minister, Mr Lionel Jospin, as a man who gets things done.
One factor which may stay Mr Lafontaine's hand in challenging Mr Schroder's decisions is next year's electoral timetable which includes 15 polls, from local elections to European elections.
Social Democrats will be eager to remain in favour with the public at least until these contests are behind them and most activists are happy to depend on Mr Schroder's proven vote-winning instincts.