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tweets. after 16 years as chancellor. why is she stepping down? does she leave in good standing? guest: her support numbers are great. they are stellar. her popularity is still high. this is a real achievement. why she is stepping down, she saw this as a good time to leave the stage. she is the first chancellor leaving voluntarily. all others were voted out of office. they are going to contribute to her reputation. she is looking for the right moment to step down. host: did she have a natural successor in the party?

did she do enough to win the election today? guest: the assumption was he will be her successor. it took her quite a while to put her weight behind this candidate. only in the last couple of weeks, she was outspoken and did a lot of support. i think it's the fact that the candidates are not really convincing. he is out of the three candidates one -- he is probably the one most similar in many ways. the way he's talking to the

audience, the way people seem to trust him. host: where did all off schultz come from? he disagreed with angela merkel during her time as chancellor? guest: he is minister of labor before. he was the mayor of hamburg. he is well known to the public. that is something he is running on it. you know me. you know what you get. i think that was one of the points he made. angela merkel made the same points a couple of years ago. you know what you get if you vote for me. he is saying the same slogan. schultz is a familiar face, a

familiar figure. people know there are no surprises. he is a little boring and dull at times. we have a knack for boring politicians. host: the polls will close in about two and a half hours. tell us what election night looks like. when we know the winter? guest: -- winner. guest: the exit polls are very accurate. i think shortly after 6:00 p.m. german time we will have an understanding of who is going to be in the lead. there are a couple of unknowns. we had people casting their votes already.

the impact of the last couple of weeks, it is probably not that big this time. you can't really change your vote anymore. we will see how this is playing out. we are talking about 50%. this is due to the pandemic. host: we lost your sound therefore a second. we want to make sure we can hear from you. we will take some phone calls on this topic of election day in germany. (202) 748-8000 if you are in the eastern or central time zones. (202) 748-8001 if you are in the mountain or pacific time zones. york pennsylvania, good morning. caller: good morning.

what are the issues the german electorate are voting for? you mentioned the parties. what are the specific issues at play? how has immigration policy affected the election? guest: pressing issues are the rise of prices for housing. we saw a huge increase of prices. germany is a place where people rent homes. they don't own homes. that really had a big impact. we also have a referendum going, how to ease that. how to nationalize them, which is a very radical move in order

to get prices down. secondly, debt and taxes. we have became elated huge debt. we looked very well before the pandemic. we have increased our debt significantly. how do we pay that back? raising taxes? we already are a high tax country. can we decrease taxes even further. that was the second biggest issue. the third point is climate change. and particularly, the green party was running it. the other parties jumped on the bandwagon. if we would want to do something on climate change, we will bring

down a future emissions and invest more. our energy prices will probably go up. that is a huge issue. it used to be a huge issue a couple of years ago. it has somewhat subsided due to the fact that the integration of the one million refugees coming into germany in 2015 and 2016, it has. it wasn't that strong. host: michael on twitter with another issue. how does that affect the european union and nato? guest: 16 years in office, you

accumulate a lot of experience. if you remember she was called the queen of the night. she was very good at sustaining long-running conferences and negotiations hide closed doors. she was very good. when she put her weight behind certain proposals, that really made an impact. when she is gone it, the european union has to look for another leader. who could that be? we just talked about who was running for the other parties, they are not looking that strong. the question, is it emmanuel macron who will be doing this?

he probably could become the main trigger in the european union. in the years to come. he has elections coming up next year. we will see if he wins those elections. with regard to nato, we got in the crosshairs of donald trump. we i mean the germans, not meeting the 2% spending of gdp on defense. we are currently around 1.5%. we got criticized for that time and again. will that change in the future? that depends on the outcome of the election. if we see more shift to the left with the social democrats flanked by the greens, it's

probably not that likely. schultz made it clear he wants to do a lot for the german army. it's unclear at this point. host: we have just about 15 minutes left. we are taking your questions about the elections in germany. we would like to hear your thoughts on the legacy of angela merkel. she is stepping down as chancellor. eastern and central time zones, (202) 748-8000. central -- mountain and pacific (202) 748-8001 (202) 748-8001,. one tweet from town square. she is a respected leader and the world will be worse off with her absence. this is derek in indiana.

good morning. you are on with markus ziener. caller: i wanted to ask about her future plans. what is she going to do to preserve her legacy? maybe a nongovernmental organization or a nonprofit? has she given any indication about her future plans? guest: that's a question that comes up a lot. this is very much to the question. it looks like she is not planning for the time after the elections. if you have to look at the character, she was always very down to earth. she is living in an apartment guarded by one policeman in the center of her lynn. she is driving an old volkswagen

golf. she goes to the supermarket herself with security. she has a shopping list and goes there. if you're lucky, you can run into her. she is a very down to earth person. she probably will -- she will enjoy the life out of the spotlight. my guess is we will not see her taking up a high-profile post after she has left government. host: you mentioned defense issues a while ago. so much focus on the u.s. withdrawal from afghanistan. how was that viewed in germany? what was the german level of commitment with the nato mission? guest: the pullout of

afghanistan was one of her low points. this was in the last throes of her chancellorship. the way it happened, how hastily it was organized, the way the u.s. pulled out and the allies had to follow suit. that did not help her a lot. our failures in afghanistan, we left behind locals who had helped the germans there. we are not able to arrange that properly and get them out before the taliban were taking over. we know this happened unexpectedly. it was rapid. still, she got a lot of heat for not preparing well for that.

this is definitely a low point in her time as the chancellor i think she didn't address the topic well enough when she was asked when she gave a speech not long ago. asking about german commitments, at times, germany had up to 5000 soldiers in afghanistan. it was the second biggest provider of troops in the country. in the end, it was thousand. about 60 lives lost during those 20 years. i think 13 billion euros were spent on afghanistan. when we look back, we will know if this was very balanced here.

host: leigh is next. good morning. caller: i would like to ask about her relations with israel. 15 years ago when she became chancellor, the first thing she did was schedule estate visit to israel to apologize for the crimes of the nazis. i'm sure she had more important things to do when she became chancellor 15 years ago. that's the first thing she did. she scheduled a state visit to israel to apologize for the nazis. host: her relationship with israel? guest: that was one of her main

political goals, to maintain a good relationship with israel. she said preserving israel is something the german state has to take care of. it's not something we do because it's politics. we have this past. this is something it was clear. the relationship with netanyahu was not an easy one, this didn't make any difference in how germany was looking at israel, and the importance of that relationship. whoever is going to follow her

as chancellor, this is not going to change. this is shared by all of the major german political parties. host: what country do the german see as their most close ally? guest: in the eu, it is france. this is only popular questions asked to the candidates, what is going to be your first trip? where you go after the election? paris is always high on the agenda. the franco german alliance is still seen as the engine for the european union. this will stay.

the question is to what extent is this going to lose steam? we had a president in france who was the predecessor of mccrone. things were rather slow. hopefully, things will change again. we will see more of a boost. since the u.k. has left the european union, we have a shift in balance. we will see how that lays out. all of the eyes are on france. i think macron is clear that he wants to boost the european union. we talked about allies, the united states is our closest

partner in the alliance. that is for sure. i think it was sobering in the past couple of weeks and months because when you were thinking the election was a separation in history. he got so many votes when he was running for reelection. it became clear the united states changed quite a bit. i think germans have to come to terms with it. under joe biden, a couple of areas unites states is doing what they find is the right thing to do. the way afghanistan was orchestrated, that is after 20

years. that is something you really have to consider. the way it was done and the way the allies had to cope with it with a lot of complaints about not getting consulted enough before that, we saw the submarine deal with australia. there are a number of other issues. the travel ban in november. europeans could not come to the united states. our destination rates are better than here. we didn't understand why that was. i think it led to a certain alienation between europe and the united states. host: markus ziener is our guest. he has a longtime journalist and

professor, help us understand what is going to be happening today in those german elections. we want to hear from you on the legacy of angela merkel, stepping down after 16 years as chancellor of germany. we've got just about five minutes. call in with your questions. christine has been waiting in las vegas. caller: i love the show. thank you for taking me. i was born in america. i am in my 60's. when i was a little girl, i remember clearly saying the pledge of allegiance to this country. i am wondering if there is a pledge of allegiance or something like that in germany. when i was growing up, i loved this country. i remember learning about the

holocaust. i was ashamed of that. i am a mix of different things in meat. how long can the human race go without being different parts of this. i respect all nations. i am greatly ashamed of the way we came out of afghanistan. i do wonder if there is a pledge . i respect the german people. i have nothing to renounce. i am older. it's a part of me. it's a part of history. we do have to learn from our past. host: let's take that question.

is there the equivalence of a pledge of allegiance in german schools? i think we lost markus ziener for a second. you can keep calling it with your questions. we are trying to see if we can get the connection. we are coming close to the end of the show this morning. go ahead and call him on the phone lines. eastern and central time zones, (202) 748-8000. mountain and western time zones, (202) 748-8001. did you get the question? guest: we have no pledge of schools. it has to do with our past. the holocaust and everything that happened in the last

century, everything that smells of nationalism is something that doesn't go down well in germany. the first time we had an open display of national attributes like the flag and singing the german hymn, this happened during the soccer championship. it was not something with people driver out on top of their cars. step-by-step, we are coming close to having a more natural feel we have been struggling with this. we are still struggling. to the question of spending on

defense, that's the main topic when it comes to white we should spend more on defense. it has led to major wars and is brought so much grief to people. you have to see that in the context of our history. host: aubrey writes in on twitter this morning, is there any place in german politics for angela merkel as an advisor or elder states woman? guest: i can only repeat what i said earlier. i think she will step down and get out of the limelight. i cannot foresee that she is pulling strings from behind. she is not going to do that. as it looks right now, it's not likely her party is going to be

in the lead in the next government. it will be the social democrats. she could end up on the opposition bench in the parliament. that would diminish the impact of her party. i did it we see that much of her in the future. host: we will let you get to it. the polls close in just about two hours. he will be watching the results. markus ziener >> c-span is your under of government, funded by these companies and more, including comcast. comcast is partnering with 1000 community centers to create

wi-fi enabled listings so students from low-income families can get the tools they need to be ready for anything. comcast support c-span as a public service, along with these other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. >> lawrence wright before we dig into your book, "the plague year: america in the time of covid," i wanted to get your opinion on afghanistan. what were your thoughts as you saw the taliban take contro