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 parties has struck. on his 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. it's

a positive spin despite heavy losses for america's conservatives but their losses are another party's gain. p.o.v. . we will hug mrs merkel or whoever and we will take our country and our people back again. tough talk from the up 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 with n.p.r. and out of his obsession you'll accept the invitation to talk about this book he will stick to our opinion we want to change the countries it's not ok we're not in politics in order to have power to speak. can the chancellor bring together two very different parties into one coalition we will examine that and more we have all . all of the election results and analysis coming right up on d w.

i'm sara kelly a very warm welcome to the 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 two largest party they've lost a lot of votes compared to the election four years ago well that's not true that's true not only for merkel's conservatives but also for the social democrats who are 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 part and 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 soon we're all united in our decision and then wants to take this step. he's i'm sure it will be in the bill 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 the 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 and we will accept the invitation to talk 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. so let's get

a closer look at the numbers now in this german election the story of the night has been heavy losses for germany's conservatives and social democrats meanwhile the far right are the big winners let's have a closer look at these collimator official results and we will begin with the incumbent here chancellor angela merkel c.d.u. c.s.u. bringing in thirty three percent of the vote the s.p.d. coming in in second place that is of course martine chilled says party they're losing a bit of ground just garnering twenty percent they had hoped for more the left party meantime nine point two percent you see them there in magenta the greens eight point nine percent the f.d.p. of the pro-business party ten point seven percent and i mean this is really something big for the f.d.p. because as we just heard in that piece they were not in the parliament for the past four years they are now back over that five percent threshold and they will be in

a position in the legislature the f.d.a. also a very big night for them i mean they're really one of the big winners here twelve point six percent also over that five percent threshold a moment in history this far right party will enter the german bundestag for the first time ever let's get more now analysis on these results on all of these numbers that you see here before me i'm going to head over to the table where my colleague khans brunt is standing by our political correspondent here at d.f.w. so you know hans we just saw the numbers there i mean one of one of the big takeaways were these victories. not only for the f.d.p. but also for the a.f.p. of course and this is something which has you know been quite shocking here in germany and also for our international viewers because it is a far right party we have to mention how is that going to change german politics it has changed and politics already in the last weeks and months we have seen that in this election campaign that anglo-american has been heckled at pretty much every

appearance that she made in them in public by supporters of the fifty and the. discourse in this in this election campaign has been pretty vicious at times and has been provoked of has been loud in some sense has been racist all of these modus operandi are going to be moved into parliament in other words in parliament to debate will become a lot more raucous a lot more vicious probably they will try to disrupt parliamentary process in many many ways they will have the has to to do to do so because they will have somewhere between eighty and one hundred deputies in parliament so it's going to be a real challenge for parliamentary process info to mcchrystal in germany so what do parliamentarians then do and what does chancellor angela merkel in particular to know because we know that she had been hoping for a better result last night she acknowledged that herself basically in her speech

before on her supporters at the end of the night is she weakened by this election result which you say certainly she's weakened her party has had big big losses the biggest losses in its history is the worst result it's had since in the post-war period. certainly this is not a result that she can well come she is in many senses also a loser of this election but in the end she is still the leader of the largest party she's going to remain chancellor so in that sense it's a win for her but it's going to be very difficult for her to cobble together some sort of coalition so that she can continue to govern especially since the social democrats with whom she has met. two. to govern quite successfully in the last four years they have said they don't want any more of this they're going to go into opposition so it's going to be a very difficult challenge for anglo american knowledge to put together a government and continue with her policies and talk a little bit more about those potential coalitions or perhaps we just have to use the singular potential coalition because it seems as if her only option at this

point is the so-called jamaica coalition that's a combination of her c.d.u. c.s.u. the greens and the f.t. is that a viable coalition would you say because these are not likely bedfellows will she be able to govern with these partners there are precedents for this on the regional level in germany that's been one attempt at this that failed to some time ago and there is a second coalition of this kind between the christian democrats the conservatives the free market liberals the f.t.p. and the greens that's just being formed in northern germany in the regional state there and is quite successful there as far as it goes but at a national level obviously that's a much bigger challenge that the issues are much bigger that consumed a lot more people in fact the whole country and the differences between these parties really are quite large we start with the greens environmentalist more or less on the left of the spectrum although they have been moving to the center

somewhat and. on many many issues on europe for instance on economic issues they have not much in common with a free democratic so it's going to be a real challenge to deal with the very latest on the german election thank you. and we have team coverage of this german election results let's bring in kate brady who is standing by for us in the field she is in central berlin this morning kate the morning after and there are certainly some headlines walk us through him. what's interesting this morning in the headlines in germany's papers is that the reason really any talk of any winners at all it's all about losses despite of course merkel's party getting the highest percentage in yesterday's election if we look at the suit deutscher this one here says historical loss for the union of course it's merkel's party the s.p.d. the social democrats and then it just saves the day in double figures we've also

got developed which says the union makes massive losses s.p.d. a wreck all the low and also then the f.t. the third strongest power and then when we look at the tatts here this is quite a rather ominous front page they've got this morning with the lightning bolt there striking. which you can see here actually just behind me and it just says they're in very very tiny writing a f.t. strongest faction so really this morning it's all about losses in the german media not radio anything about any victories a lot of soul searching ahead for the main parties here in germany with this rise of the a f t k brady with the very latest from the field walking us through those headlines thank you. well our correspondent charlet potts and thomas sparrow are at the c.d.u. as p.d. headquarters charlotte i will begin with you because as we mentioned

a day of soul searching really here in germany merkel's party is the major loser of this election although on the face of it we have to mention of course they do appear like the winner how big is the disappointment over there. it's big and i have to say that i mean the party leadership is still trying to portray this as a win for the c.d.u. as a win for at least she has made it into a fourth term as it looks like right now that she will pose this tensile or again and at least the party is at thirty three percent but of course when you look at the numbers close this is a huge loss it's the biggest or the weakest result for the conservative since nine hundred forty nine and another number that was quite shocking last night to them is that over one million voters have made their way over from the conservatives to the far right of the so they've lost quite a few voters to those newcomers in probably amend and as you mentioned there will

be a lot of soul searching it had for merkel's conservatives in particular there will be questions asked if she has let the right course for her conservative she has moved. conservatives strongly to the center from the right to the center of the political spectrum and there will now be questions asked moving forward if that was the right course that she is she left the party in absolutely a lot of questions yet to be answered also on the part of the day where you are standing by a party headquarters there tomas i want to talk a little bit more about their announcement last night the announcement from martine schultz the head of the party that they will leave the coalition government and go into the opposition is this supported by the majority there in the s.p.d. why are they making this move and why now. well indeed sorrow that is supported here by the majority most people in the s.p.d. were actually tired of the grand coalition in particular because they saw that even

though they managed to achieve things as part of the grand coalition the credit was not given to them for their achievements but to the chancellor so many people here actually and people we spoke to last night said that it was time to end the grand coalition and the way in which the party can raise its profile the way in which the party can focus again on the topics that it has focused on for a very long time is by becoming the strongest opposition party in parliament that has two main goals on the one hand raising their own profile as i've just mentioned on the other hand also preventing the alternative for germany from becoming the strongest party in opposition in fact martin shows here stressed last night that that will be a main goal that the s.p.d. will have you know position to fight the populist a.f.d. and that fighting spirit was certainly something that you saw from him last night in various discussions we thank you very much for your analysis from s.p.d.

headquarters thomas sparrow and from the cd you carry on charlotte potts. so as we mentioned the far right 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 f.d.a. has in store for the country. it was the results they'd been dreaming of not only has the f.t. made the 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. yeah i d.v.r. the f.t. was elected for its content for its positions such for the people who have given us that trust the first thing we will do is to keep a fuss 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 found four years ago it was a single issue set up campaigning against the euro germany's contribution to the e.u. bailout fund for greece. it's almost got elected to the bundestag in twenty thirty but ended up just shy of five percent needed. the a.f.d.c. electoral fortunes change with chancellor merkel's reaction to the twenty fifty migration crisis it jumped on the issue monies to get 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 semele. this news of the election results spread hundreds of people converged on the a.f.p. headquarters to protest against the policy the a.f.p.

is dividing germans and its rise could make german politics equally fiery. more now on that rise of the f.t. we can cross to my colleagues to me so misconduct she's and varian 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 sammi how do does the f.t. appeal to voters there. you know sarah 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 or surely 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 they have it 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 an alternative alternative put across next to our party and that's exactly what will give you. and see one of their messages was also quite clearly anti my grant 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.d.a. 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 shailene itself a 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 samey this support for the a.f.p. doesn't seem genuine i mean you've been throughout the country have 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 sarah is that one of the criticisms of chance on america is that over her 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 hotbed of a after a support we thank you very much for your reporting on the rise of this party. so we have heard what the party is and the analysts have to say about sunday's election results now let's turn to voter what voters have been saying online at least we're joined now in the studio by day to be social media editor jared reed hi jared good morning to you so what is the conversation online was there a one way to get a good pulse of the electorate is to see what they searching for on google so we can take a look at some of the google searches that came after the exit polls were released number one who voted for the alternative to germany many wanting to know the

demographics of the far right versus number two what happens if there's not a coalition it seems a fair amount of people to be worried about bass and number three what is the jamaican coalition of course refers to the colors of the jamaica flag black for the cd use green for the grains and yellow for the f.t.p. in fact there's so much interest in a potential jamaican coalition that the only country in the world currently googling jamaica more than germany is jamaica so there's quite some interesting statistics that give us an idea of what's you know what's really in the minds of voters here in germany and jamaica to its understandable that they want to know why we are talking about that so much care so jared let's talk a little bit about supporters in particular of two of the various parties how how they weighed in on line let's look at the social democrats and they have to have particular because we know that the f.d.a. they've had a very strong presence and they've used the internet to mobilize support well

that's right let's start off with the social democrats today is not the best day for them but many also too disappointed about seeing their party out of government let's take a look at a reaction from a social democrats she writes dear s.p.d. one hundred p. use this now for a shift to the list that's where we come from and that's where we belong many other voices are also reacting to the rise of the alternative many one here. this is i've talked to my grandparents earlier who still cannot hear the word nazi without flinching and now i have to explain this and in fact the hash tag eighty seven percent is currently training on twitter to let the world know that most voters in fact did not support the idea fifty one here writes we must not react to the i feel but we have more solidarity and togetherness there s.p.d. versions and this eighty seven percent trying to make sense of these results very good to now jared with the latest from our social media desk thank you so very much

. well we're going to have lots more coverage of the german election took on the course but first let's get a quick check of what else is happening around the world telling him for his standing by thank you very much there and we head straight to iraq where an independence referendum is underway in the country's autonomous kurdish region this morning other polls have opened that more than five million voters are registered to take part in the non binding ballots the government in baghdad has condemned the election as turkey and other regional powers. the kurds it's a chance to say they want to live under a single centralized government of their own 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 i guess. we support the referendum if it's in the interest of the people

people will not support it though 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. you know though that they are less unfortunately the state that we have right now in iraq it is a theocratic sectarian state. the i think you might say it is 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 and. what the map of iraq is endangered by

a tense and division and tearing us apart discrimination between iraqi citizens on a nationalistic or ethnic basis exposes iraq to dangers not only to guard and turkey's deputy prime minister beckett badar 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 fearing unrest in this unstable region but that shrugged off the pressure and they're going ahead with the vote. now some of the other stories making news around the world japan's prime minister shinzo is expected to announce a snap elections country could go to the polls next month a year ahead of schedule is enjoying rising support amid tensions with north korea that is expected to order a major economic stimulus package as part of his campaign. the trumpet administration will impose fresh travel restrictions for additional

countries according to a white house statement north korea and venezuela have been added to the original mostly muslim majority list still in restrictions will take effect next year. police in the u.s. state of tennessee say one woman has been killed and several others injured after a masked gunman opened fire in a church there hailing the actions of a church who helped subdue the assailant the motive is not yet clear. and with that. helena thank you so much and just to remind our viewers you have been watching special coverage of the german election we have to take short break but coming up 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 a.f. mean for the refugees that have come to germany and those 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 weekend german chancellor angela merkel play in the many conflicts around the world you can join me and my guests after a short break as we try and unravel what this election result means for all of those issues and more i'm sara kelley in berlin and you're watching news a few minutes. nationalists are on the rise with worldwide to make your country great again that is their slogan their focus put your nation first i am taking a trip to highlights different shades of nationalism and to find out what that nation me to you. the cia's story join the conversation here on to w

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d.-w. dot com site gus. sustainable protection for the earth ideas designed to preserve our ecosystems they exist around the whole. global ideas takes the next step protection for our planet's biological diversity trailblazing projects. d.w. dot com slash global ideas. 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. with the at the migration crisis has changed germany the arrival of hundreds of thousands of refugees inspired an outpouring of help. that's one side of the story

another is that the crisis made many germans in secure with anxiety over wellbeing and personal security. the twenty fifteen new year's eve attacks in cologne as well as islam as terror attacks imports poured on xbox and berlin led to people feeling unsafe. populist anti 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 managed to follow a united refugee policy who may travel to germany and who not should germany maintain its openness or seal itself off the country has yet to answer these questions. so in which direction is germany heading with its migration policy i'm joined now in the studio by brian todd to man from the european movement

germany as song from the german institute for international and security affairs gentlemen good morning to you thank you so much for joining us and we'll turn to the first question to you because we know that many people they put the rise of the far right a.f.p. down to chancellor angela merkel's handling of the refugee crisis that moment where she said we can do this the voice of the f.d.a. is about to get a whole lot louder isn't that it was very loud before it was election campaign and now we're getting into parliament and the good news is there would be a good government which would be pro european and try to contend with the migration process. 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 f.d.a. 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 could 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 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 break the 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 that what are 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 e.u. so this will bring together we will have a new start i think also with the new government but what are your thoughts well i think the division will. basically 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 come or 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 who knows that that's what the past shows at the same time i think we also have to recognize that we have some areas where there are hardened mill hughes 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 the 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. germany as a target of islamist terror on the job and face a big challenge how to keep the contrie safe. around seven hundred potential terrorists have been identified in germany the government has announced new rules to have them monitored. but they can move from one european country to another just like the berlin christmas market attack so it's a task that goes well beyond germany's borders. 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 terror 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 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 ject if 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 in the us 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 that the f.t. has been able to influence that discourse the pact the fact that they will be part of the government well that 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 for you 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 for 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 discourse 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 away to growing but the challenges facing germany's next chancellor of the us stopping conflicts in syria in eastern ukraine and over north korea's missiles in the face of unpredictable strongmen such as putin and kim joan. stopping the destructive force of climate change in the face of another unpredictable strongman domo trump. and what about germany's role in the eurozone so from penny pinching you know stereotype has been berlin's ounces to currency crisis so when 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.

i've got a closer look now at the german government's global challenges i am joined by political correspondent brian he has stayed on the set for us and let's also bring in a call ron heard from the german council on foreign relations and 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 it seems that if they don't make a coalition obviously parties involved have a strong transatlantic commitment so i think we see more of the same you know. supports a transatlantic dick relationship that is not borne tensile and desist 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 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 deteriorating deteriorating between germany and those countries nicol what does this election mean for those relationships but i would say it would be also 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 states leader who seems not to be governed by emotion so much but by by very cool realistic approaches and in this respect i would say. mechelle will try other lot to improve the relationships relationship to russia and turkey within the global situation we are in the color 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 will appreciate us so we've just been looking at some of the global challenges as we mentioned facing the next german 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 .