With just two months to go before the likely date of Italy's general election, no-one knows whether technocrat Mario Monti will put his name forward, when the elections will be or even if plutocrat Silvio Berlusconi is really in the running.
While some newspapers yesterday tipped premier Monti as likely to attempt to continue with a pro-European austerity programme, others thought he would try and influence politics from a distance.
"Monti's entrance into politics is just a question of days," the left-leaning Repubblica newspaper said, while the Corriere della Sera said the former Eurocrat would lay out a list of ideas to be taken up by pro-Monti parties, without his leadership.
This week could prove decisive, with the premier expected to resign once parliament approves next year's budget -- a vote expected on Thursday or Friday at the latest.
Monti is then expected to announce on Friday or Saturday whether he will run in the election, which most observers agree will now be on February 17.
He could also bid instead to become Italy's next president, a largely ceremonial role that occasionally acquires a stabilising influence on the country's notoriously riotous political scene.
European leaders, the Catholic Church, centrist parties and break-away dissidents from the centre-right have all pressed the premier to launch himself into the political fray, but closed door talks between Monti and Italian President Giorgio Napolitano on Sunday left observers none the wiser about what path he might take.