fresh elections let's come back to sara brock myers from the global public policy institute here in berlin sara does that come as a surprise to you does not come as a surprise that the does not want to enter another ground cornishman they've said this from the beginning and it was clear likely that they were not going to do that what i found surprising just now and mr schultz statement is the enthusiasm almost he expressed for fresh elections given that globally this is quite a big event as has never happened that fast in german politics before and he was even starting to come pain right there and then in his first press conference he said he's they're not afraid of new elections why is that i mean he must seem see some opportunity here as you said it sounded a bit like he was starting on his campaign there maybe he was widely seen as not having been very successful in the last compan having been run a very inefficient campaign and not about the correct issue and not really being himself in the sense so maybe he sees this as an opportunity to for another chance of what were the reasons that the social democrats said no we refuse to enter

a government with the chancellor you have to see that they were the last grand coalition the last government also the previous one from two thousand and five to two thousand and nine they have not been they have been the important partners in the cornishman and they have also actually gotten some of their shifts through but they have lost votes every time after that in the. following election meaning that for them this is a battle being in a grand coalition so it is essentially one more blow to chancellor merkel this was an opportunity that or an alternative rather that she was hoping likely hoping would work what is left for her now to do. there basically two options minority government that she has to explore and the. new elections it's clear that she can't just call new elections this is a job for. basically the president. and it's quite procedure because german law after their experience in the i'm a republican the one nine hundred twenty s.

has been has very strict procedures about dissolving parliament ok tell us more about these procedures and you know what would that take basically normally to dissolve parliament the chancellor would have to call a confidence vote which she can't do right now because she is not officially installed as re installed as chancellor off this next. parliament what she has has to happen is that. basically nominates her as a candidate for chancellor and then the parliament that when the state has to vote on that in the first two attempts or two votes they would have to vote for her in an absolute majority which is very unlikely to be the case but when they have a third vote which can happen after two weeks they can and kind of majority a simple majority is enough and she'll probably get that then stand back and basically dissolve parliament from being the german president so that's very complicated if you think about what does that mean essentially from the american.

well it means obviously she's weakened. but it doesn't mean she's gone i would say there are a lot of people that wondered whether this was basically the end of machall and it might come in the next two years but unlikely to come right now because there's no clear alternative within the c.d.u. all right now we also have our own political correspondent who's bronte has been following this story for us let's bring him in if he can hear us if you're there you have also been tracking what's been going on both with the press conference also the s.d.p. as we just listened to just a little bit of that earlier how what does all of this mean in your perspective. well i think if you look at the reactions throughout the morning to the collapse of the coalition talks during the night it seems that all parties concerned are preparing themselves for the new elections are in fact to some extent looking forward to such a new elections i think one could probably make an argument that the free democrats

these business liberal party that nature that caused the collapse of these talks that they are in fact hoping that in fresh elections they will improve on the already pretty spectacular results that they had in the elections at the end of september so for them fresh elections are an additional fertility and there are even some pundits that are suggesting that they. are. engaging in a kind of tactical game with these coalition talks leading them on a stage when they were almost complete and then allowing them to come collapse in order to show their voters how strictly they stick to their principles as it were and we've just heard the social democrats mounting shows also talking about the what for him seem to be almost rosy prospects of new elections are fresh elections so there does seem to be an impetus in that direction at the moment and so we all

here i did follow this election year very closely it was a long hard fought battle a very very polarized debate leading up to the september twenty fourth though i don't know how much how many of us are looking forward to another election and are there any indications in polls for example that there would be a difference in the results for any of these parties. at the moment as far as i know there are no polls that show any marked difference at all and we have to remember what's caused all of these problems was caused the fact that four parties had to try and build a coalition is the. right wing populist alternative for germany the right wing popular search for the first time entered parliament with quite a large number of votes and as a result there was not enough votes going wrong for the established parties to build coalitions of the way they have done in the past so the question is really what would happen also when you elections come what would happen to the right wing

populace there are some people who say that they will also do even better and might lead to further polarize ation in german politics more than we have already at the moment so it's a very very uncertain prospect for the whole of german politics at the moment. just as you're speaking with been looking at live pictures there. the german president is about to speak will be going live to that statement when he does take the podium but hans i also want to ask you since you're outside of bellevue were american met with my earlier tell us more about the role this very important role that the german president will now play. yes indeed the german constitution constructed in such a way as to make it very difficult for parliament to be dissolved parliament cannot dissolve itself a government once it is in power can through. one cannot confidence verge

ask for its government to dissolve but under the circumstances at the moment you elections can only be called after a very long procedure and in this long procedure the federal president. whose office as you said is in the building behind me. plays a crucial role he has to try and persuade the various parties involved to form a government to try again maybe to form a government before he actually goes the route towards a new elections this is all in an intended by the constitution to bring stability to the german political system so that there cannot be the situation that we have at the moment that election follows election and coalition government follows for coalition government so this kind of stability is what the constitution has tried to ensure and we are now facing the first time in modern german history that there may well be no government formed elections called almost immediately ok now i want

to pick up on the one of hansen's points that he made there and just so our viewers know we are looking at pictures of inside. has been standing outside waiting for the german president to come out he mentioned the question that there is a question about whether the whether this week democrats. had ever really planned to go into this coalition government the question of how far you know what we're just going to go right to this press conference now because we do see the german president. let's listen in. cindy dielman so i know. you can. get final is it worth your own none of the situation in. which we have never had in the history of the federal republic of germany that is has never been around for almost a year it's

a political parties. called. the bait and act and of course to form a government is always a process of the baiting purposes and goals with a mandate to form a government is the highest mandate voters give to parties in a democracy. and that mandate remains valid on twenty fourth of september. parties applied. for the role of taking responsibility for german. responsibility which cannot be returned easily to a vote of us following the provisions of the constitution this responsibility goes far beyond the individual interests and applies. particularly not only to the voters of your own party but. this is

a moment for all participating actors to. rethink their positions all parties that were voted into parliament are obliged to serve the common ilands on. they serve our country. and i expect from all their willingness to engage in. talks in order to make the formation of a government possible within forseeable future if you apply to take on responsibility you need to live up to that responsibility once you have gained it and in the. next days to come and i. talk to the all. parties involved in the expert try to talk but i will also talk to and to each happenstance of those parties where. any election program

over there. allows not to exclude the possible formation of a government i would also talk to the heads of the other because it usually organs the presidents of both chambers of parliament i will talk to the president of the federal constitutional call. and. one thing is clear you know. me inside and outside of our country and particularly in. the neighboring countries in europe. would rise if it was specifically the strongest. country in europe where the bulletin boards don't live up to their responsibility thank you very much all right we have been listening to the german president speaking there. and we have us there from the global public policy institute with

us here in studio and our correspondent. brant has been following this for us is coming to you first what did you take away from that statement. well there is no decision made clearly yet and what funk the german president has been stressing is that political parties cannot play with the mandate of the voters that it's not up to the political parties to decide whether or not they want to accept a virgin the way rather in fact that they have to accept overt in the way that it has come that it gives them a responsibility that there needs to live up to and that in fact there is that responsibility is to form a government so he's stressing this. reasons the reasons of stability that the german constitution they set off so much emphasis on and he's trying to say that it's too early to sign that new elections are the only possible option that he's

going to appeal to all political parties to continue attempts to try and form a government that's what it seems to me is going to be the outcome of decided today so a mind or two parties and their responsibility to voters perhaps a message to his own party the social democrats have announced today they also are refusing standing by their position to not go into a coalition government well that appeal possibly be enough to to notch the parties back to the table. yes indeed it is certainly also an appeal to the social democrats and i think. who himself was a member of are going to knock his coalition government for many many years before he became president certainly knows what that means also for his party but i think he will also appeal to a martin short's whom he's going to meet on wednesday as we've heard. the social democrats true need to reconsider their decision against a grand coalition against participating in another new government whether or not

frank fight a persuasive force is going to sway the mind of martin short one has to wait and see it so far the social democrats since the election night since the twenty fourth of september have repeated many many times that they are not interested in joining a new coalition and we just heard martin short earlier today saying exactly the same thing. all right sara coming to you know what are the possibilities here if it's a minority government a new one or new elections it seems like we're heading towards new elections but why couldn't a minority government vote explain to our viewers why that is problematic. why minority government why is that doesn't seem to be as a viable option as new elections here right it seems well it's not something that has been tried in the federal republic of germany since basically the second world war and since its existence it's been tried on a state level in the in the biggest region and germany and north rhine-westphalia

but there's no kind of experience with that and the expectation is that such a government would be very unstable the government the minority government would have to look for votes in the other parties every single time when it once the decision to be passed is very little opportunity to plan long term to give any kind of guidance also to international community how germany is going to act on certain issues because they would have to call together the votes every time you mention the international community what message does this you think all of this sends to the international community germany seen as a beacon of stability not only in europe but also in the world yes it's quite unfortunate that it's so obviously gives a picture of not stability and of uncertainty and unprecedented uncertainty on the german level and it's been already two months since the german elections and already before in the campaign everyone in the community was waiting for germans to form the government to make progress on such really important issues

such as the eurozone or the e.u. and reforms of the e.u. the french president mccall has put concrete suggestions on the table has been waiting for more than two months for any kind of answer from germany and this if this is going to continue like this there won't be an answer for the next three or even six months how big of a barrier is that i mean in terms of politics it's a huge problem because there is only a very very small margin of small window of opportunity basically for significant year reforms before the next parliamentary elections which will happen in two thousand and nineteen. and if there is no german government i can take up my proposals that can start serious discussions before the next summer before next fall it's very unlikely that are that they're going to be major reforms which are urgently needed to keep also simply the and if economic stability and the stability of europe as a whole so they're playing a waiting game there meanwhile back here in berlin we keep saying that this is been

a blow for chancellor angela merkel as well and that her power also hangs in the balance is there any scenario where she would then step down from her party and from her position it's very hard to say right now there is obviously isn't there that she will i think shows into that that in earlier when he was asked whether he would go into a grand coalition with the city you without merkel and this seems a bit more inclined if i understood him correctly there so that's a little kind of opening from the side of this beattie but right now there is no clear turn if within the city you and the c.s.u. in terms of who they would want to see you as. i turned it in from the uk there are different factions the more conservative and more liberal if you want to say like that factions of the city you and there's no clear person that can unify and also run the party like that and then there's no guarantee that the city you would get similar numbers in the polls because mecca has been one of the big factors that

made the city you're successful over the last years and she has remained fairly popular also over her twelve years in office if we look ahead to the possibility of new elections there is the question of the concern among. conservatives that this could then strengthen the extremes and in particular the far right the alternative for germany. how real is that possibility that they could profit from new elections . it's a very real possibility i think so far there's no one that was really able to make a proper prediction because a lot of will depend on the different campaigns and how they were basically run their campaigns but it's very possible that such an election after you know just a few months after the last election will depress voter turnout which can help those parties that have a committed voting base which in the case of the i have to if there are enough angry people basically to go to the polls can go into their they're in fact which

we were just talking with comes a little while ago about the fact that it seems like the social democrats perhaps a few democrats seem to be looking forward somehow to new elections if there are new elections that obviously we're still far from that point but if that is the case why is that do you think that they stand to gain as well at least they have a chance i guess they hope that if they run a different campaign if they get more courageous more exciting basically they might run they might just win a few more percentage points they also the s.p.d. obviously hopes that they would have a much better chance the same of the f.t.p. if merkel doesn't run again because yes she was one of the main factors for the c.d.u. success in the past years so there i think there's hope.