zoom. zoom. this is d. w. news live from berlin angela merkel wins a fourth term as germany's chancellor but support for the country's main political parties has shrunk as we've emerged as the strongest party the c.d.u.

with the c.s.u. . it's now up to us to form a government and no government can be formed against us. a positive spin there from the incumbent despite heavy losses for merkel's conservatives but their losses are another party's gain. america or whoever and we will take our country and our people back again. tough talk from the op starts of german politics the far right alternative for germany they are set to enter parliament as the third strongest party and merkel's challenges don't just come from the right now she needs to lead tricky talks on forging a governing coalition to n.p.r. not it was it's just you'll accept the invitation to talk about us but we will stick to our opinion we want to change the country so we're not in politics in order to have power as we. can the chancellor bring together to very. different

parties into one coalition we'll examine that and all of the other election results coming right up here on d w. sarah kelly a very warm welcome to special coverage of the german election angela merkel has won a fourth term as chancellor but the election result was painful for the country's main parties they have lost a lot of votes compared to the last election four years ago that's true not only for america's conservatives but also for the social democrats or center left coalition partners in the outgoing government now both parties say they will work to win voters back. joy and despair for germany's conservatives they lost significant ground this time around but chancellor angle americal will

still serve a fourth term she says she'd wished for a better result which is now set to form a new government. isn't stark's the cuff we the c.d.u. and the c.s.u. have emerged as the strongest parties we have the mandate to form a government and no one will form one against us. the social democrats are in shock after their worst ever result the so-called schultz effect a bump in the polls when party leader martin schulz declared his candidacy went nowhere he's now ruling out joining the new government but says he won't step down as party chair. i've advised the s.p.d. leadership that we go into the opposition as him we're all united in our decision but someone's to take this step. he's in. the boy with the s.p.d. out one of michael's possible coalition partners is the pro-business free

democratic party and they came back strong after a humiliating defeat four years ago labor for and then before and the dear friends before the last election period was the first in the history of our republic without the voice of the f.t.p. . and it should be the last let's the give is on the free hand the environmentalist greens are another possible key part of the governing coalition but only on their own terms have been the are not it was it's just that we will accept the invitation to talk of us but we will stick to our opinion. we want to change this country. we are not in politics in order to have power we're doing politics because we want to change something. one party that won't be in any coalition is the far right alternative for germany they had a historic night that's all the mentor parliament for the first time but they're relishing their role as the underdog and they are promising

a seismic change in german politics. and in these german elections the big story of the night has been the big losses for germany's two biggest leading parties meanwhile the far right look like they are the big winners let's get a closer look now at these political narry official results and we're going to begin with the incumbent german chancellor angela merkel c.d.u. c.s.u. as you can see here they have garnered a majority coming in at thirty three percent of the vote following them in second place is twenty point five percent for the s.p.d. that is martini party the left party meanwhile they managed to garner nine point two percent of the vote you can see them there in magenta as for the greens eight point nine percent the f.d.p. ten point seven percent a much better showing than in the last elections they are now going to be part of the parliament you'll recall that four years ago they didn't manage to reach that five percent threshold in order to get in the a.f.d.

meanwhile twelve point six percent and this is a really big part of the story because this is the first time ever that the a.f.d. will be entering parliament a party which was formed about four years ago and they are very clearly above that five percent threshold let's turn now to our political correspondent going to head over to the table now to get a little bit more on these numbers and break down what exactly they mean is standing by for us as we mentioned the a.f.d. party. really coming into force here on the german political scene they are set to change politics in the country fair assessment. they have already in fact if you look at the election campaign the law. two weeks it's been a lot more vicious a lot more vociferous. a lot more confrontational than has been the has been usual in german politics so this kind of rabble rousing you might say this kind of very robust debate if you want to put it in

a positive way is there to enter parliament and they're trying to they're going to try and make as much noise as possible to just interrupt parliament in many ways in fact some of their spokesman last night were asked well what are they going to contribute positively or constructively to parliament in their state that's not their role and so it's going to be a very very difficult period for german democracy everyone's going to have to adjust to that in fact one of their leaders saying last night that they would want a glimmer goal or whomever is the leader chancellor down actually they're in the bundestag on the fact that they were able to get into the bundestag this time around does that give the party some sort of legitimacy or could we even say respectability here because i mean they're very controversial in terms of their views right you have to say. twelve percent nearly thirteen percent of voted for this party that does give it legitimacy that does give it respectability in terms

of the support that it has gone not necessarily yet in terms of its political row or in terms of its political program there is some tension within the party in the last four years since its existence it has several times the very strong different . to the party one wants to push the party even further to the right there is another smaller wing of people who want to turn the party into something like a respectable but a very conservative party and these two wings will both be represented in parliament so there will be some tension also there amongst their eighty to ninety maybe even one hundred. members of parliament. exactly what role they're going to play and with are they going to cooperate at all with the other parties and parliament so there is some sense of respectability based on the fact that they have been voted in a democratic election into parliament but some question about what they're going to do with that mandate and the task of getting these parties to cooperate is now

really in the hands of the german chancellor angela merkel. on the face of it she appears to be the winner in this election her party getting the majority is she the winner hans formally she's the winner obviously she's the representative of the largest party but in fact she is the loser of the night one has to say her party school which could put it that way the highest losses in its history and it's the worst result that her party has to achieve since nine hundred forty nine i think for decades anyway and she's in a very difficult position because she has to find coalition partners to be able to continue to govern and that's going to be very difficult to toss let's talk about those coalition partners because she seems to in fact only have one option that is the option which is known here as jamaica a combination of her c.d.u. c.s.u. the greens and the f.d.p.

those are their colors that's why they call them jamaica because they represent the jamaican flag in some way these are not likely bedfellows are they can she be to deal with them well there are some precedents there have been such a culture america coalitions regional levels and there is in fact a very fresh regional government in northern germany that is also formed by these three parties and so there is a sense that there is this this isn't possible in some way and by doing this on the regional level is a lot easier than doing it on the lashon level the national issues simply are much larger much more important more important to more people so the differences. between on the one hand the green environmentalist party which is really a party on the left of the spectrum the market liberal free democrats who are in the sens in some ways more right wing or more in the right of the spectrum than michael the c.d.u. herself and then one has to say they're still marco's. sister party in bavaria the

c s u and they are really further to the right still so getting all of these in fact full parties to agree on very important issues is going to vague be very very delicate very own hands brought you'll be with us throughout the morning putting this election into context for our international viewers thank you so much for your reporting. well we have team coverage of this german election for you and we're going to turn now to kate brady who is out in the field in central berlin and she is monitoring the mood for us so kate the morning after what are the headlines. yes it is the morning after the night before and what's interesting this morning actually is the headlines or seen on germany's papers none of which seem to be speaking of a winner or any real victory last night if we look at the front of the. site and we've got a historical loss for the union that's merkel's party the social democrats and the

a.f.p. in double figures similarly on the on developed got the union loses. and the s.p.d. a record low and the f.t. the third strongest power and then on the tabs we have this rather picture here of the lightning bolt striking the dog the german parliament sits and it just says a very small bite in the f.t. the stronger the strongest faction so there is in the press at least no real talk of a winner this morning and it's all about losses. so kate where do things go from here as we've heard angola merkel's c.d.u. they may have come out on top but it was hardly a triumph what happens next. of course one of the big challenges merkel set herself last night that there's a tough road ahead and one of the main challenges for the party for the c.d.u.

now will be winning back those votes which have been less lost to the f.t. to the far right a.f.d. here as we know will be enter in parliament for the first time the c.d.u. alone last woman million votes in this election to the a.f.p. and obviously the next on the agenda on the agenda will be those in a coalition ago she ations at the moment of course there's only one kind of feasible option for merkel now that they s.p.d. the social democrats have said that they will go into the opposition so that other option of course will be the jamaica jamaica coalition between the c.d.u. the f.d.p. the who are the liberals and then of course the greens as well. kate brady with the latest on the streets of berlin thank you so much. so as we mentioned a short while ago the far right a.f.d. will be the third largest party in parliament entering the bundestag for the first time this after having been

a magnet for controversy here in germany with their deliberately provocative campaign let's take a closer look now at what the a.f.d. has and store for the country. it was the results they'd been dreaming of not only has the f.t. made its sense of the german parliament it's become the third biggest party many calling it a seismic shift the day after the leaders a promising to change the country. german government whichever way it is formed shall dress warmly we will hunt them. we will hunt mrs machall or whoever and we will take our country and our people back again. and so we call him. the i am diva the n.f.t. was elected for its content for its positions such as the people have given us that

trust the first thing we will do is to keep office promise we will initiate a parliamentary investigation into angola macca. anglo-american it's even until. the f.t. says the german chancellor broke numerous laws when she opened germany's borders to hundreds of thousands of refugees in twenty fifteen now it wants to take her to task it's also promising to make immigration a major issue in parliament. we don't want the makeup of this country changed by a mass invasion of foreigners we've always said that some will take that into parliament. in fact the a.s.d. wasn't always about immigration when it was founded four years ago it was a single issue set up campaigning against the euro and germany's contribution to the e.u. bailout fund for greece. it almost got elected to the bundestag in twenty thirty

but ended up just shy of the five percent needed. but hey if these electoral fortunes change with chancellor merkel's reaction to the twenty fifty migration crisis it jumped on the issue of money she gets into a number of regional assemblies. it's often brought low making calls for rory with scandalous rhetoric fiery clashes it's likely to carry those tactics into the federal the same way. this news of the election results spread hundreds of people converged on the a.f.p. headquarters to protest against the party day after years dividing germany's and its rise could make german politics equally fiery. let's get more now on that rise of the f.t. we can cross to my colleagues to me so misconduct she is and very in in northern

germany the city of course lies within chancellor angela merkel's constituency but support there for the national safety is quite strong good morning to you sami how do does the a.f.d. appeal to voters there you know sara one of the first things we noticed when we came into town on saturday was the fact that of all the election posters that were plastered all over the city they seem to be the best represented not just in the heart of the city official in but also in the outlying areas and if you look at the messages that were on those posters a very clearly law and order safety bringing safety back to germany those were the messages that they were using to try to appeal to voters but they're also the message that you saw here and across the country really was that people were really seeking for an alternative to the mainstream parties the f.t. was well aware that there was real frustration in this area with the governing coalition and that message that you saw overwhelmingly on the posters was kodesh trust yourself if you're looking for alternative alternative put across next to our

party and that's exactly what will give you. and sumi one of their messages was also quite clearly anti migrant anti immigration anti islamic on how big a factor was that stance where you are so you have to say that that definitely did play a role we don't have any polls from last night yet but if you look at the last regional elections here in the state of mecklenburg west pomerania last september where the f.t. also won around twenty percent of the vote fifty six percent of the people who said they voted for a.s.d. did so because of the refugee crisis so that is a significant number it is a picture is because surely in itself received only between one thousand five hundred and two thousand refugees since the year two thousand and fifteen since the refugee crisis started in germany but we did speak to one man yesterday who cast his ballot for the eighteen and told us he's never met a refugee he avoids speaking with refugees who just want to make sure that they don't enter germany so sami this support for the a.f.p.

doesn't seem genuine i mean you've been throughout the country you've been talking with many people does it seem as if people really believed in this platform or were these voters just trying to send a message to the established parties that they want change. also i think the f.d.a. itself is very well aware that there profited from the protest vote there are a lot of people as i said earlier who are extremely frustrated and the leading candidate here in the state life in the column yesterday said very clearly after the vote people are desperate to see change so that definitely plays a role in why people have voted for the a.f.d. but the other thing you have to remember sir is that one of the criticisms of chance on america is that over heard last twelve years in office she moved her party significantly to the left so there are a good deal of voters here in this region especially who have voted for the f.t. because they're looking for a conservative platform one that they feel like they no longer find in angela merkel's conservative c.d.u. because it's moved too far to the left so based on the scandal with the latest from

sherry in a hot bed of a.f. days support we thank you very much for your reporting on the rise of this party. and in fact over the next few days people will be trying to analyze the factors behind the a.f.d. success what we can already say though is where those votes for the a.f.p. come from let's check out this graphic we're going to have a look at how it compares for example to the other parties where they have managed to garner those votes for and you see there basically a lot of their votes coming from chancellor angela merkel's party the c.d.u. c.s.u. according to the official plymouth narry results nearly a million votes went from the c.d.u. c.s.u. to the a f d it was followed by s.p.d. voters flipping their votes to the a.f.p. then the left party the greens and the f.t.p. so a pretty broad range of support there they were pretty much able to garner votes across

the board meantime we also want to look at how things sort out demographically because you know we mentioned that sunni was in a particular area of the country and that support for the day you can really see according to this map tends to be in the former east of the country so let's get a little bit more analysis now on why this map might look this way i'm going to head over to the table where our political correspondent standing by for us hons we're looking at a divided country is that a fair assessment why does it seem to be that the a.f.d. was so strong especially in the east well we have to look at german history here that has the former east germany the former communist east germany and on the other side the form a west germany to form a. west germany that was in the western block these countries unified in nine hundred ninety when east germany basically collapsed and the problem there is this

question of east germany simply in the sense ceased to exist and the people there have the feeling that. they were not really respect to the. and she knew not to be respected that in fact they were in some sense taken over by the west and that nobody really looked to their particular needs and that they are still being in some sense ignored by mainstream politics in germany and that goes especially this protest vote then against the established parties against the christian democratic union in against our going to marcus conservatives and also against the social democrats so there is this feeding of even more than a generation twenty five years later they still this feeling very widespread in that region of in some sense not really being taken account of that's part of the reason for this protest in the strength of this protest vote in that region and we heard angela merkel saying last night doing

a bit of soul searching we have to say basically questioning why these voters chose to flip from her party to the f.d.a. saying that perhaps they have to have a look at at why exactly that happened given that hans what do we expect to happen in the days and the months ahead. well the days ahead for obviously today all the parties are going to sit together in their leading. formations and they're going to try and analyze these results and see exactly what happened where they stand and then at some stage in the next couple of weeks there will have to be an attempt but i'm going to america and the initiative is hers because she is the leader of the largest party to form a coalition to talk to other parties and see whether they can work together to build a government however there is one aspect in german politics that that's putting a little bit of a brake on that and that is the fact that we're going to have a regional election in lower saxony in october in just a couple of weeks time in fact the first thing i'm going to mark is going to do the

day after tomorrow is going to go in the hostage's again they're in lower saxony and only when that result is in the country it's a federal state that at the moment is controlled by the social democrats it has to be decided whether they are going to continue to be in politics or not once that is the side and only then will real concrete talks be possible to his very own hands bronx with the very latest from the german election we thank you so much for your reporting and we have of course hearing more german election coverage to calm but first let's get a round up of some other world news helen home for his standing by with that sara thank you very much indeed first to iraq where an independence referendum is underway in the country's autonomous kurdish region this morning the polls have opened there more than five million voters are registered to take part in the non binding ballot the government in baghdad has condemned the election as have turkey

and all the regional powers. the could see it's a chance to say they want to live under a single centralized government that making. the kurdish city of. the site of a poison gas attack by saddam hussein's forces that killed thousands almost thirty years ago a symbol of why many here want to break away from iraqi control and create their own state. we support the referendum if it's in the interest of the people people not supported well it will cause more wars or cause people to flee their homes we have had enough of wars and deportation we do not want more wars and destruction of our homes. kurdish regional government president massoud barzani explained why he's pressing ahead for a vote. unfortunately the state that we have right now in

iraq is a theocratic sectarian state. stuff i would like to underline that we are never ever going back to baghdad to renegotiate for us. in baghdad the iraqi prime minister. has condemned the referendum. what the map of iraq is endangered by a tense of division and tearing us apart discrimination between iraqi citizens on a nationalistic or ethnic basis exposes iraq to dangers known only to god and turkey's deputy prime minister. said kurdish leaders were playing with fire and will be the first to be burnt. many world leaders had also asked the kurds to postpone the referendum favoring unrest in this unstable region but that shrugged off the pressure and that going ahead with the vote. and with that is back to sara thank you so much helena you are watching special coverage of the german

elections time now for a short break but when we come back we'll be asking what are the main issues that the next german government will be facing what does the rise of the. for the refugee policy all the refugees as well who have come to germany and those who are still hoping to get here what about domestic security with fears that germany could well be the target of more terrorist attacks and what role can a weakened chancellor angela merkel play in the many conflicts around the world. will join me on all of our gas just after a short break as we try and on gravel what this election means for all of these issues we're back in a few minutes you're watching. explain

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going to the big w. we speak your language our spanish program tonight. only as well informed as openness and i can like you always close to the action but i'm not part of the folk at all i look like a candidate that's up to the minute news and opinions of the background to political developments. d.w. we bring you more of the oil. welcome back you're with d.w. news and a stash will edition on the german general elections i'm sorry kelly it is great to have you with us the voters have spoken and as we have been reporting with the

social democrats declaring their intention to go into the opposition there seems to be only one viable coalition for the next government everything is pointing to the conservatives joining forces with the greens and the pro-business f.d.p. but what are the next german government's main challenges what problems will chancellor angela merkel be facing in her fourth term of office over the next hour we will be looking at the key issues facing germany starting with the topic that perhaps dominated the election campaign more than any other that topic is of course immigration in just a moment we'll be talking with two experts on that subject here in the studio but first a reminder of what's happened so far. the migration crisis has changed germany the arrival of hundreds of thousands of

refugees inspired an outpouring of help. that's one side to the story another is that the crisis made many germans in secure with anxiety over well being and personal security. the twenty fifteen new year's eve attacks in cologne as well as islam as terror attacks in broad spork on xbox and berlin led to people feeling unsafe. populist and tell you islam parties such as the a.f.d. have benefited from the crisis hardly anyone in germany now speaks about welcoming refugees and the refugee crisis is not over many are still arriving by crossing the mediterranean the e.u. has not. manage to follow a united refugee policy who may travel to germany and who not should germany maintain its openness or seal itself the country has yet to answer these questions . and trusts and rafael you know the f.d.a.

they have changed the tone of the political discourse in this country haven't they do you expect things to change for the refugees who are already in germany what are their prospects now that the a.f.p. is going to be in the bundestag i don't think there will be an immediate major change on the prospects of people who are in the country i mean we cut it might be that there will be more symbolic policies in terms of more demands on what happens if people don't go to german cars and so and so forth but i think this is just a bit of symbolic politics at the edges i think i would be more concerned about first of all that right wing extremists get involved and we saw this after the brics referendum that we have an optic again in like actual street violence against migrants and refugees hopefully that won't happen and the other thing is that i think it will be difficult to move back to some more progressive policies particularly on family reunification so refugees who are here were hoping to bring their families maybe after march next year i'm going back and say let's wait for

the end of the relax election and now of course it's questionable whether she will you know actually allow that to happen or sort of push for a continuation of the suspension of famine or if occasion what is also questionable and quite a challenge for the german government is of course also integration policies brant i'll turn to you with not one of the prospects given this you know current political makeup in the bundestag we have got two years behind us now with the immigration question and we're getting now to something what is keep calm and carry on we have to build there will be a new government trying to. bring the things together and this is something what we can go can expect we think that the european migration situation is to be hunted by many many more than just germany and you so this will bring together that we will have a new start i think also with the new government but what are your thoughts well i think the division will obviously remain in place but at the same time i think we

also have to remind ourselves that in history or in terms of like public opinion it's often the time lag like that is actually important so the refugee crisis is not that long ago and say through three years from hans i think a lot of more people will become more used and actually really internalize that germany actually more or less managed with a lot of you know squeaking in the machinery but we did manage and so i wouldn't be too pessimistic to say that you know we will have this for the next ten years to come i mean who knows that that's what the posture show us at the same time i think we also have to recognize that we have some areas where there are hardened mill years who are really also ideologically driven and we see this in the regional differences through the election results and i would hope that there will be you know new approaches to push this also in an ideological front back and not just say well these people are concerned and that's not good enough for those areas where they really speak support five fifty s i'm hearing a positive assessment of

a challenging topic gentlemen thank you very much for your assessment of migration and immigration in the country and we know that one of the other topics facing the country is security because ever since the deadly attack at a berlin christmas fair in two thousand and sixteen security has been an increasingly important issue in the public debate a recent survey showed that terrorism is the single biggest fear that german citizens have many people here believe that further attacks are inevitable. with. germany as a target of islam tara the german authorities face a big challenge how to keep the country safe around seven hundred potential terrorists have been identified in germany the government has announced new rules

to have them on it but they can move from one european country to another just like the berlin christmas market attack so it's a topic that goes well beyond germany's voters. it also includes fighting terror groups internationally with a planned decrease in defense spending by the government. but the big question is whether this will be enough to prevent another terrorist attack from happening. germany and security let's bring back in rafael boss on from the german institute for international and security affairs and we're also joined here in the studio by the correspondent hans front gentleman a very warm welcome back to you. rafael i'll turn to you first because you know the a.f.d. party especially they basically conflated the issues of security and immigration was that fair and the fact that they did that what does that mean for the country and the general discourse here where it is easy populist move to make but it

remains really not correct i mean it is true that all german parties have had a difficult period to kind of come to terms to talk about those links that they are i mean there were a few terror incidents that were linked with refugees and they were there are some incidents in terms of public security and crime that are going to migration but it's by no means objective that in general refugees are response for an uptick in general crime and insecurity it's much much more subjective feeling so to get that right to talk about those problems that they are but they are limited and to handle that while remaining calm is we do the challenge for the main parties and the are the kind of explode starts kind of vulnerability and that's the populist approach and now of course they are in the bundestag so the question is i mean it seems as if you know some people at least a bay bought into this philosophy the fact that you know security and immigration are intertwined what does that mean now the fact the a.f.d.

has been able to influence that discourse the pact the fact that they will be part of the government well they have influenced the discourse already for weeks if not months this question of security being willing to refugees the questions of secure . being pushed to the fore and in fact to the governing parties the parties that have governed until now have responded to that in many ways that have to has been a lot of discussion about increasing police presence in germany and bought employing more policeman about increased surveillance in public spaces about increased resources full things like databases of crime of coordination between various security institutions and so on so just to the security debate has been very present in german public disco discos for quite a while now some part of that is the push from the right from the f.t. on these issues has brought you talking about resources there at let's talk

a little bit more about that because resources of course that means money rafael do you think that there is the political will right now to spend more money on security in germany and is that necessary well i think we've seen this already that there is the political including the green party who was maybe perhaps most contra program i grinned and sort of skeptical of increased. state repression in some sense are committed to spending more on police but i think it is in part necessary result also to kind of come back from some of the cuts that were done in the last decade so it's not just a question of the refugee crisis but a general turnaround and in that sense is justified but i think it's also important to say it's not just about the police and if it's only about police we won't get the results we also have to invest in the justice system and more widely in everything for crime prevention which means a lot of social work as well so police alone won't fix the job rafi and hans brandt we thank you very much for your analysis on this topic security here in germany.

well so far we have been looking at the domestic challenges that lie ahead but this is a globalized world of course and in these turbulent times more and more people are looking to germany for leadership let's take a look now at some of the foreign policy challenges that await the next government . on the international stage demands for berlin to pull more weight to growing but the challenges facing germany's next chancellor of the us stopping conflict in syria in eastern ukraine and over north korea's missiles in the face of unpredictable strongmen such as us to putin and kim germany. stopping the destructive force of climate change in the face of another unpredictable strongman don't trump. and what about germany's role in the eurozone so from penny pinching

in austerity has been buddies on says to currency crisis so where will the next chancellor lead germany towards a greater role in world affairs or is this all too much for a medium sized european power. of get a closer look now at the german government's global challenges i am joined by political correspondent on the set for us and let's also bring in a call ron heard from the german council on foreign relations in a call a very warm welcome to you we know that one guiding principle of german foreign policy since world war two has of course been the strong relationship with the united states but we saw the challenges posed by trump in that piece there what is the state of this relationship going forward and what are the challenges for the next chancellor well in saying that if they don't make a coalition honestly parties involved have a strong transatlantic commitment so i think it's the same you know. supports

a transatlantic dick relationship but is not borne tense atlanticist so i think we see a little bit more of the same in the upcoming year i want to talk about the office of chancellor in particular with you hons because we saw germantown. markel the result was not what she had hoped she even acknowledged that last night. what does this do to her standing as a world leader because in the wake of the u.s. elections there was a lot of speculation that she was the next leader of the free world is that now still the case given the fact that she has lost some ground domestically well i think you can't exactly say that she's a lame duck chancellor now even though she hasn't got the result in the elections that she won so i think there will be a feeling amongst world leaders that there is still a sense of continuity in germany that she is still around with her experience and with twelve years behind her back as it were with a lot of the international crises that are going on that she can continue to be

involved in that obviously one has to acknowledge that she now has a domestic situation where she has to kind of reestablish her base a domestic base but i think in general on the international scene people will be relieved that i'm going to america has indeed won this election and will continue to be involved in the really difficult discussions on north korea and so on. that are continuing although some leaders who might not be relieved are the leaders of russia and turkey right we know that relations have very much been deteriorated deteriorating between germany and those countries nicol what does this election mean for those relationships but i would say it would be all some more of the same we saw in the last months and years actually that the relationship with turkey and trust russia will continue to be very difficult but one of the positive news coming from this elections is that with on a macro you have a state who seems not to be governed by emotion so much but by by very cool

realistic approaches and in this respect i would say. try either not to improve the relationships relationship to russia and turkey within the global situation we are in the call i'm very of the german council of foreign relations and our very own hans brandt we thank you very much for your analysis on the topic of german. global challenges we appreciate it. so we've just been looking at some of the global challenges as we mentioned facing an extreme in government but the more immediate focus is likely to be a little closer to home the european union is central to germany's identity and germany is central to the e.u. success but these are of course difficult times for the union here's more of the turbulence in the eurozone seems to have passed but there's a new storm approaching italy the country with the zone's third largest economy is

struggling with billions in debt italian banks are stuck with non-performing loans a countrywide bankruptcy would threaten the existence of the entire currency union . brecht's it marks a turning point for the e.u. the wrangling over the future relationship between europe and britain will cost both sides political energy for years to come what will happen to the e.u. citizens on the island will britain pay its debts or will brics it leave a big hole in the union's budget while a strong and confident e.u. that's something not only brussels is pushing for french president emmanuel marcal wants a separate budget for the eurozone and the e.u. parliament as well as a currency minister european commission president john claude younker on the other hand is pushing for euro zone expansion he wants to bring all the member states into the currency union the e.u. is facing radical changes where does germany stand. where

does germany stand let's bring back nicole ranvir from the german council on foreign relations and we are also rejoined by burned her to man from the european movement germany bernd welcome back to this great to have you here i want to turn to you first what is a selection mean for germany's role in europe given that chancellor angela merkel has lost a bit of ground here domestically has her position been undermined. the next government will be very pro european government in any case so it will be not that difficult for her than many people might expect before i think that that something what is going on now in the next weeks and months is on the one side you have to form a coalition other than side you have to get partners in the european union to get the european project done this is not met was never easy so this is something what has to be done by her anyway so this new government will be quite challenging of cause when it comes new partners new ministers new coalition building that is

something what is not that easy for her but from the clinton point of view the government position will not change that much and it's actually quite interesting because we remember of course younger basically saying that he hoped that things wouldn't change being of course one of the highest officials there in the european union it's clear that they might change in fact so nicole what do you think that the prospects then are for the you given that we might have to work with new german partners here that those relationships might need to be forged well why in the international setting in which the new. new fraying for example a relationship to the united states but also to other countries which certainly not to be an easy ride and europe has to do a lot to stabilize itself and with a new government i think you have strong supporters of strengthening the evening with in jamaica coalition which we all expect we have. personalities like thanks

and i don't feel i'm starfall was the vice president of the european parliament who has every strong relationship in the united states and is a very strong european saying accounts such as mr meehan who has spent at least a year in washington is also a committed european so i think in this respect the new government will lead to very committed to the european cos i want to dig down into a little bit the details and talk a little bit about money now because we know that france's new president is pushing for more european integration i mean he and angela merkel have been very close on that project in fact including a eurozone budget i mean this is something that's very controversial isn't it because i mean the f.d.p. one of the potential coalition partners of angela merkel they say no way is this election potentially a spanner in the works for furthering the european project and more integration montague's and just and just mean mall integration in the euro zone first of all the many other issues like security migration energy policy that

there are many things the government can agree with mr with mr president my call on the other hand side the eurozone deepening of course but what is expected tomorrow mr mcconnell saying that that we need to further integration that is never really easy germany there are many many stakeholders in germany who are not very much in favor of the deepening of the euro zone and also of the. bigger because share of money i think we have to listen to what we did together with mr jung i think the talk before you made his speech and the european parliament this was something we have to make the whole sitting bigger most take on the table and the european union has to become a more wider discussion place it's not just germany and france this is very important to sign as a signal to other partners in the e.u. then you get another compromise than you might think about just accepting from

paris thank you very much a call ranvir and burned thank you again for telling us a little bit more about germany's relationship with the e.u. and the challenges that might be ahead. well let's wrap up this look at the issues that are facing the new government by bringing things back home to germany because people often talk about the country as an economic powerhouse and on the face of it that is of course true but many people still believe that some of the strongest german industries like the car industry are not doing enough to keep up with technical innovation and the world famous made in germany tag is losing some of the shine thanks to some high profile disasters with major infrastructure projects. germany's economy is booming unemployment is low companies are making healthy

profits it would appear that everything is ok or is it. for years germany has invested very little in infrastructure such as roads bridges schools and high speed internet more investment is badly needed. large projects like hamburg philharmonic concert hall are taking longer and costing more than planned. berlin's new but long delayed airports is yet another example of bad planning germany's auto industry is dealing with the fallout from the diesel scandal while other countries are leading the way in car technology. when it comes to climate protection germany is also lacking behind including its much vaunted transition to renewable energy. yes we can say germany's economy is booming but it's in danger of being overtaken by its rivals when it comes to the

technologies of the future. so what direction is the german economy heading and i'm joined now in the studio by your host from the european school of management and technology here in the. and thank you very much for being with us this morning so tell us i mean the german economy it's doing quite well now but that's largely a result of some reforms that were made you know a decade ago and also just general economic conditions how long can germany rest on those laurels does it need to make the economy more competitive absolutely yes germany infect us very well unemployment rate is slow public that keeps decreasing everything looks very fine on the first place but at the same time it's very important to start picking up was reforms the last real reforms took place more than ten years ago in particular in the last election period over the last four years we've seen rather spending on social welfare then real reforms then investments and this is really what the new government needs to change it's

incredible when we look at just the general picture of the economy internationally speaking i mean we've we've had financial crises and in the past decades which have been really hard for many countries around the world germany has been relatively immune to those crises but we have an environment here in europe where the central bank has very loose monetary policy and it's sort of universally acknowledged that there might be challenges when it comes to tightening that policy how is germany positioned to deal with that. germany in this sense is doing well given that public that has been decreasing since the financial crisis so coming down from about eighty percent of g.d.p. now close to sixty percent but at the same time there's a real challenge for other countries in europe and now there might be a divergence in what the central bank really has to do so for example if the central bank decided to raise interest rates it may really trigger serious problems in some countries for example in italy if it does not raise interest rates it may really trigger inflation and some see in germany for example real estate becoming

more and more expensive so therefore there will be real challenges and trade offs also the european central bank has to do fascinating stuff and we know that the majority of germans that they're happy with the economy they feel that they're benefiting from its gains as well but you know the backbone of this economy is the small and medium sized enterprises and topics for example such as digitalisation and the challenges that they pose i mean those are threats to those sorts of businesses or opportunities but you say well you could say that they are threats and opportunities but in certain certainly it needs to be the case that there is a lot of investment needed for example in broadband infrastructure so that just the prerequisites they are. the european school of management and technology telling us a little bit more about the challenges and the opportunities ahead for the german economy thank you very much appreciate it. if you have been watching special coverage of the german election my name is sarah kelly in berlin thank you very much for tuning and we'll see you again at the top the hour.

and i think one day this war will be considered cruel and unjust war but. certainly all citizens of ukraine every man woman and child of. their own land of the enemy invade. no one wants russia here which is. global news that matters. d.w. made for mines and then fresh d.w. because i'm you speak your language being dug up. for content in dari pashto and border prospects for returning our web special refugee journeys of life in germany and the prospects for those returning home. join the discussion on t w dot com and on facebook. prospects for returning news d.w.

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is d. w. news live from berlin angela merkel wins a fourth term as germany's chancellor but support for the country's main parties has shrunk. and.