the what is your news of data this hour? i'm quite richardson for lynn for me in the whole team working behind the scenes. thank you so much for joining us. the europe's largest football tournament is in full swing. fans from china to brazil are following the action is germany, hosts the way for championship. for the 1st time since reunification, 35 years ago. the fans like the ample flow of beer. and i don't seem to mind an occasional cascade of rain, but time germany live up to its reputation as a model of efficiency and organization. delay trains, frustrate fans traveling to the matches, and discourage germans for whom such problems are just one more symbol of decline. kind of diverse, an agile german team. help lift

a nation driven by doubts and divisions out of its crisis. our question, germany host 02024, kicking its way out of the crisis. the hello and welcome to to the point. it's a pleasure to greet our guest guides has on hasn't the berlin bureau of the financial times? matthew cottage thing is chief europe corresponded for political and it's a pleasure to great my colleague down here barcelona. she reports on sports and football for dw, and is a player herself. she's played mid field for clubs in germany, in norway, spain, and as of late woke up. so daniel, let me start out by asking you quite simply, is germany a good host? what would you say it is currently the most here in the country?

well, i've been lucky enough to go to a lot of the matches in the stadiums and i've been in a lot of the fan miles. and i can tell you that what i've heard from the people who have come to germany is that they're having a great time. they're really enjoying the defend zones that have been set up the stadiums. now i have have heard a lot of complaints about the train system, for example, some of the ocean fans when there was a game in berlin. they actually missed a lot of the match because the trip they were trained delays and goes incursion. also the same kind of situations. so in general, yes, but there are some complaints that i've definitely heard about it at the moment you're from north america originally, and at the moment the u. s. is currently hosting the cops, america. how would you compare the 2 turned events? well, cobra america is the biggest tournament for north america and south america right now. and yours is the biggest tournament for europe. so i mean, you're, the heroes are a little bit bigger, i would say in terms of new or shouldn't because europe is really the center of

football in the world. so all the players around the world, if you're growing up playing football, you want to play in europe. so that's the goal. and couple of america, there are a lot of ice from north america, but i would say more of the world is watching. the euro is right now, and that's you before the tournament kicked off the head of you a for which is the governing body of european football, said that this tournament would be sustainable and uniting that it would bring the peoples of europe together. and in fact, the continent could choose some of that because it's been looking pretty fragmented lately. but do you think of football tournament really kind of cubical that big? i think it can divert people's attention from other things that are happening and that can be very positive. europe is obviously having a very difficult moment at the time both politically and with the war in ukraine. so i think uh, a nice football tournament can show people maybe the sweeter side of life to

a degree. although i've heard some other people say some europeans tell me they feel somewhat guilty about supporting their national team as, as strongly as they do. because in, in, in their mind that contradicts the european ideal of sort of european unity and everything. so i think there is a bit of skits of finding out there. but i think overall it is, it is a good thing. how do you see an it guy? you know, this is taking place just a 9 hour car drive from the beach, from ukraine itself. is there a head in the sand quality for you when you see fans here in berlin, celebrating and sharing, while the war continues undiminished? uh, not far away? well, it certainly has completely dominates that, that kind of news flow. you see it on a lot of the kind of big new science on the bbc for example. i mean, the euro news really is, is up and the sort of the various aspects of the tournament are endlessly debated into dover and the results. so you, you definitely have a sense that sort of international attention. certainly you are paying attention

towards the war has diminished rather a lot, also towards submit the word in the middle east. but in a way you understand that is it kind of, you know, some of the voice and the media. you understand that they're the sort of waves of, of interest and this interest. and sometimes i used to it a bit with gauze or i think you know, the attention, you know, public interests, reach a separation point and people are desperate for a bit of a diversion and bit of distraction. so i think it kind of just the right time. then the chancellor schultz said right before the tournament began that he hoped it would bring good spirits to germany and certainly the nation could use some better spirits and you know, the country pretty well. are you seeing mood boosting effects amongst germans? yeah, definitely. i think that we're in a time right now where everything seems very negative. you know, there's war, there's inflation. things are not going very well on foot wall. is that chance that

we have to come together and it unites people from all walks of life. it's something that we all have in common and you see this in the sand zones. for example, you see men, women, children, all different races, all different religions altogether. and they are cheering for the same thing. so that's very powerful in terms of, of lifting people and bringing them together and showing that kind of unity. and that's the power that's for it has because at the end of the day you think, okay, it's just as for, it's not so controversial, you know, and it brings people together and it up lives the spirit. and now that being said, coming from north america, my 1st, you know, impression of billing was, people maybe weren't as friendly as i was used to. but here now during the year, owes people are saying hi to you on the street. people will stop and have a conversation with you. what all did you see the game yesterday? what do you think? who's going to win? so yeah, the spirits are definitely uplifted from my perspective. thanks. we will drill a little bit deeper on the diversity issue and perhaps the slightly darker side

that we've seen at some of the some of the games. but let's 1st drill deeper on germany. situation itself in germany has no title to defend as a nation, but it does have a reputation for efficiency, organization and economic pro us. that lately, at least it's been struggling to live up to kind of championship deliver a boost. not only for the beleaguered economy, but also for gloomy self doubts. i'm. i think it's very german. they organize everything super well. um, it's super friendly. you can go everywhere. it's really easy with public transportation, so yeah, it's really good super organized. the daily lives of germans are quite different. trains get cancelled, are overcrowded, and delayed something, some football fans that experienced, for instance, endorsement. it's badly organized. elizabeth, chaotic, germany efficiency seems to think of the past. the economy has plummeted.

international rankings. germany less skilled workers. digitalization is only creeping in german taxes are really top tier has is german bureaucracy. and then there's the coalition government endlessly arguing about where budget codes should be made. things could hardly be worse, right? so good. i mean, let me look at this, this place is like, literally like the best place. remember me, can football lead germany out of its crisis? you know, mastery, there was a time when that actually did prove to be the case. i'm talking about 2006, what the germans referred to as their summer fair retail. when they hosted the world cup championships, everything seemed to be going right. the national team one and there was really in a way, a new sense of patriotism in this country. do you think this european championship can possibly deliver something like that? as i think it's going to be difficult because of everything else that's happening

around the world and in europe at the moment, especially the war. and at that time there was an easy news. i think not just in germany, but around europe about the state of the world. things were, you know, not as not as a kind of a controversial than and many in many respects as, as they are today also politically in europe. now we have this surge of the far right and the economy is not doing well at that time. angle america had just recently become chancellor. her predecessor had pushed through some very tough economic reforms that germany was coming out of sort of a tough economic period. when it was referred to as the sick man of europe, and that was sort of the beginning of the boom years right then. and some people attribute the summer fairytale to that success. but i think that there's just too many problems as we heard in the report right now in the economy for,

for this to have the same same effect. although i do think that it could give germans, if it, if they succeed. and if, if this turns out to be seen as a success, success in europe and around the world, maybe a little bit more confidence in their and their own ability to turn their, their, their country around. that 2006 championship guy of course, took place before the financial crisis after the reunification of germany. so in a way it was a golden moment. what's your take? would you agree with mouth to that we're in a very different era now. yeah, absolutely. i mean, it's interesting i'm, we were talking to frederick minutes yesterday, the leader of the christian democrats and some tiff nominate for chancellor. i'm sorry, on vacation party. and he said something really interesting, which was he thought that if god should, i had called the elections in 2006 instead of 2005, he would have one because the moved in the country off to the some of the fairy story was just so positive, it would have given a massive boost to his standing on to the s p d,

which may be some people might think is a bit far fetched because it's an interesting so no hypothesis. and there was a bit of an economic boost from the, from the world cup. and also there was a lot more spending. there was a lot more sort of confidence consumer confidence. and also was matthew said, these reforms that showed that had started a beginning to come to fruition. so you really so it was a sort of real sweet sweet spot. and it could have changed the costs of german history, a general political history if he the cool be like since liked to have sufficient fantastic contingency to ponder the following that summer. fairytale in 2006, which of course was a world cup as we say, not a european championship germany a g d p per capita, rose by 1.5 percent. typically, you don't see that kind of an up tick after and european championship. what's the

difference in the scale, but it's just purely economically of these 2 different kinds of championships. well, the world cub means that people will be coming to europe from all over the world. so south america, asia, and if you think you come from asia to europe, you're not going to stay for the weekend. you're going to stay for longer. you're going to make a trip out of it. you might go to different countries. you're going to see a little bit more of germany now for the year o's and germany's location is also pretty central. you can come to germany for the weekend. you don't have to stay that long. now, there will be, of course, a boom in the hospitality sector. hotel prices are extremely high right now. people are going out to eat, they're going to bars, but you don't have for the euro. is people really staying in germany for 2 to 3 weeks unless they're, you know, the super fans who are following their teams every single place they go. but that's a smaller number of people. and in the world cut, people really tend to save up for 4 years to make that big trip. and so they

spending a lot more money. that's the tourism side. what about the infrastructure side? we see a lot more investment in conjunction with the world cup, building new stadium of priest, perhaps even transport and logistics and you would with it within europe and championship. that really depends on the country. for example, when the walk up wasn't guitar, they had to basically build everything new. so of course, and there was a lot, there's a lot more infrastructure now. there's trans systems, there, subways, new stadiums, everything. we saw this in poland and ukraine when they hosted the arrows. poland really had to build up their infrastructure and that had a really positive effect in the long term. now, germany already had a trans, this system. they had the stadium. so a lot of what they did was freshening everything up a little bit. but, but i think that obviously the scale is not as big as the world cup. and germany already had a lot of this infrastructure set. so they didn't have to go construct new method, speaking of transporting logistics and we saw the pictures and the report. how's that exactly been working with that punctuality and deficiency that many people

associate with germany, the economic powerhouse that it used to be. well, what's your assessment of the state of germany today is the my lives that people feel justified by the hard facts of the economy. so, yes, i, i think it is, i think germany's in a, in a very tough spot. but there's a disconnect, i think, between the way people outside of germany perceive the country and the reality of the, the country is germans experienced that every day, particularly economically, the germany is in a, in a difficult situation. the economies been stagnating for 5 or 6 years. there's no obvious path at the moment out of the situation that it's in right now. they're huge problems in the auto industry. for example, you can see that if you watch one of the games because the, the main advertisers in the games are the, the, the ninety's electric vehicle maker b y d seems to be everywhere. and i think in,

in past tournaments it would have been the german car makers, maybe, or german blue chip companies that would be advertising there. so there does seem to be a shift here and the current government and, and the, the, the german, a sort of titans of industry have, have yet to really find a path out of this, this very difficult situation that they're in guy that, that chinese advertising and it's not only be why do the audio auto company, but other products as well. what does that tell us? an optimist might say, well, you know, may be germany's presenting such a great image to the world that we'll have lots more in coming to a chinese direct for an investment. but is that a bit a bit too? it was it lives or? yeah, no i, i think that's the case. i mean actually the latest figures show that for an investment is kind of drawing up a bit and in germany is that a sort of low levels which we haven't seen for many years low levels. um, so yeah, i agree with my few i think that there's a sort of thumb there was

a bit of the malays at the moment. you see it also in the political situation which we have right now does basically a kind of it will that the, the, the policies in the governing coalition have painted themselves into a kind of kona and, and no one really knows how's it going to get out of it, so that does a sort of sense of political in the lives as well as economic malays. your a newspaper actually wrote just before the tournament began in in june that europe's super power is football, not politics. that's a direct quote. the question is, how far that football super power can go and what it can actually achieve for a national government in my lives. as you say, germany certainly is that also for a europe that at the moment uh, you know, is fragmenting and facing a big right wing search. yeah, no, i mean, i think it's some, i think it's a very,

very dangerous point really in, in europe's history. and because we're seeing sort of the centrifugal, uh, sort of a forces really intensifying and strengthening and, and going back to the idea of unifying and unity it's, it's very difficult to really project tennessee when you're seeing, if you're a skeptic policies, for example, do so well in the european elections and you have a sort of nationalist governments now in, in italy, in the netherlands. and, you know, who knows, possibly off the sunday and fronts as well. so it's, it's a very, it's a unique time, really for europe. and i mean, in the way football can kind of paper row for those crap cracks, but you know, the problems remain. germany is renowned economic institute. i w says that the biggest driver of a potential euro 2024 up turn of any kind is germany's national team winning the

title that could deliver emotional and economic returns. certainly the agile team got off to a good start, but how far can they go and how far are germans ready to support? an unusually diverse lineup. a party in berlin, germans are celebrating their multicultural team, which includes son a and to who to go. we'll see all a including to one to see, to mix aren't it's a good mix of german society. so i think the team is great too much of the classic . you have interest by everyone is equal and it's been person represents germany and can play really well. then we should be happy. they are on our national team of us. but them opinion poll shows, but one and phonic germans would prefer it if the national team had more white players. some politicians from the far right, a f d party reject the team, saying it is not german enough. the

a f the recently became the 2nd strongest german party in the european elections with almost 16 percent. non german born football fans have had different experiences. the regular games here. if you don't speak the german, they like uh, you're gonna hear some assaulting words in germany. and i have never seen any raises thing, and that's just me being fair. how cosmopolitan is germany? daniel, what's your answer to that? to what degree does this very diverse team actually represent this society as a whole? i think it, it's a good representation of what society actually looks like now, because everyone doesn't look exactly the same. and also talking to a lot of different fans. they also say that they say that this is a national team that the whole country can get behind. because i can look at the team and say, okay, there's someone who maybe comes from a different background like me, and then somebody else can say the same thing. and that's

a great representation of what reality is now. and i think also that that does translate into, you know, politics because people can get behind football. and you can also learn important lessons from football. you see that, you know, germany, bish, germany is working together for the goal of winning the arrows for the country and what that does to the country. and i think that that has the potential to then have a trickle down effect. now it's, it can be a catalyst, but it's important that, you know, governments in society take this effect that the euro is, has had, and then use it in a positive way. because after a while, the effect will kind of be forgotten. nonetheless, may i ask you, and i know you're in austria and american, and we have heard fans from austria, but also from germany at some of the matches chanting slogans that are known as neo nazi slogans. foreigners out, i'll send to house. how bad it wasn't there, by the way, how bad is it?

would you say, is this just a very small minority of very vocal fans, or do you think we really do see in both countries? austria in germany, a deep problem, massena phobia and racism? i think both can be true and i think it is both. i think the people who are, you know, yelling these kinds of insults are, are a minority, they're allowed minority. but there are deep problems in, in, in both countries with, with, as ina phobia, but not just in, in austria and germany, you're seeing it all over europe. and i think in those 2 countries in particular, it's very closely connected to what we've seen with migration flows over the past decade or so. and those 2 countries in particular have taken in more refugees per capita than just about any other countries in europe. and, you know, there's a sense that they've been overburdened by people and they've been overburdened by the rest of europe is to say that, you know,

they are the ones who are left to deal with this influx of refugees and that other countries particular in eastern europe for example, are taking enough refugees and so there's a lot of, there's a lot of resentment over this. i think there's also a lot of concern in germany about the fact that many of the migrants are most of them are, are muslims, and you, you saw this after the european election, there was a pole that really caught my eye that showed that over 60 percent of germans were sort of unnerved, let's say by the fact that is lum was becoming more prevalent in, in germany. and that, that kind of tells you, you know, where, where people, where people's minds are go. it's sometimes hard to believe that this is still such an issue back in the early 2, thousands. there was an anti bully and a phobia campaign in this country that showed an ad where you saw the foot. but the drum and football team lined up with it. foreigners gone from it, it was basically

a losing team. if they had put that team out on the pitch, they would have lost. sometimes it's hard to believe, but this is still such an issue from your vantage point also. so as a, as a british citizen, looking at germany, would you say the country has a big problem? well, i think it does have a big problem, right? and you can see that that by the phenomenal success of the i f, the, i mean the right wing party. yeah. and the old tensor for germany, which it did incredibly well in the european elections as we've heard. and it's an extraordinary phenomena in the a, f d, because we've seen in the last few months they've been embroiled in so many scandals. so much negative coverage and the price um and so many sort of i rages sort of statements that the politicians have made. and it hasn't damaged and the tool and so that is a sort of very good indication,

i think as to how deep this problem of sort of those. and if i'd be or, and nationalism, is it in germany? i mean, maybe it's wrong to call it a problem, but maybe just a phenomenon that it is that there is this sort of constituency in the german politics voting politics which is extremely designed to follow back on to immigration, then you could just say, yeah, think on that because i don't think that it's really different in other parts of the world, and i think of, of the u. s. for example. and the debates that the us having over the migrants coming over the southern border. and obviously this is a big issue for it. for donald trump, and i think in any western country where you have a large influx of asylum seekers of migrants coming in, you're going to see this kind of backlash. that's been the story of the last 2530 years last year. germany took in, i think over 300000 migrants and that is just number that is very difficult

for the country to a stand. then you very briefly is the diversity of the team manifesting itself and the way they play. yeah, i think definitely it is. and if you look historically, that's often times, uh how it works and football, the team kind of represents society and how, how they play right now. this team is more fluid, want to change on more funds that going to win on friday night. again, spend. i think so. okay, who's going to be the european champion? the method you will be thinking. okay, i have to say that there are no sense of no part of the set up here. thank you very much to all of you for being with us today. thanks to all of you for 2. and again, please look at our youtube channel and tell us what you think facing the

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you're watching the the it was coming to live from berlin. a landslide when for the u. k. 's labor party makes care storm or the new prime minister on around the from frame helps focus on the register change with over 2 thirds of the seats account. and the conservatives are on their way out for the 1st time in 14 years. and the center left is on its way. also ahead is rails or ultra orthodox jews are facing conscription for the 1st time, sparking protest in the streets and in the right wing governing coalition.

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