this is d.w. news live from the czech presidential election seems incumbent i mean no she is a man clinched the first round but he failed to win a majority needed to avoid a runoff that means the czechs will have to go to the polls again in two weeks time . coming up after months of deadlock germany may be on the way to forming a new government chancellor angela merkel says a coalition could be in place by. that certainly if social democratic leader martin shows could win over his party's skeptical men. and no good as leader

is back off to its winter break ramp and find one last night at later cruisin but what about today's games well we'll bring you all of the result. on how to humphrey good to have you with us in the czech republic incumbent is a man has won the first round of the country's presidential election with nearly all of the ballots counted the pro russian candidate gone it almost thirty nine percent of the vote but that's far short of the majority needed to avoid a runoff now he'll face the pro european candidate yes he did a harsh in two weeks' time. milosz they even was preparing to cast his vote when he was confronted by an activist from fame and. would put in slot she shouts and once

again demon is the focus of media attention just as he likes. the ice famine recently attacked the poll i am on or that they also attacked me. zeman is used to making headlines he's aimed at journalists with a fake rifle railed against refugees called for an end to sanctions on russia and there's no one to indulge in worldly pleasures. i'm voting for the man because he's against migrants and he's a good man. i just hope the next president would be like zuma. is even did not even bother to take part in the election debate instead his main rival. came out on top mainly because he is a respected as someone who cry academic contrast zeman. the czech president's popularity in the provincial districts has landed him first at the polls. ziman

connects with people in rural areas he polarizes paints the world in black and white and promises easy solutions it is class and populism. still is even hasn't secured more than fifty percent of the vote in the first round he'll face a runoff later this month. and journalist in when it is with us now from prague explain to us why minish is their man appears to have been able to reach out and gain support from rural voters. there are some on like street present himself and some out of the people he drinks he sloth's uses vulgar language he also likes to attack what he calls the liberal elites and that seems to play well with voters outside the capital also in the czech republic there is very low unemployment but there's also a lot of low paid employment and it's these people especially outside of pride in the countryside with low paying jobs that he seems to be

a human issue he also plays on fears of migrants specially in. muslim countries and i think essentially as we heard in your report what he does is classic populism and i should point out that he was one of the few e.u. leaders who publicly backed donald trump when he was running for election in the u.s. who likes to kind of align himself with from the right so we're talking about classic populism as you say that he paints himself as a man of the people the czech president's role however day is largely ceremonial with some palla what has is a man managed to achieve in his first ten. the role is largely ceremonial and has some powers for example a kind of or a pointer or other judges or governors of the of the czech national bank us mr simon is the first ever directly elected czech president and he is really stretch the role to be diminished of what he can do as president he really tries to

take maximum political advantage from what he can do under the constitution he says that he has a creative interpretation of the constitution as for what is a compass points are well he has reinforced ties with russia you can call that an accomplishment he's also strengthened ties with china but i think more than anything what he's done in his five years as president has been to divide check society a lot of these two lines of rope really you wrote west or looking more to the east all right well in light of that division and looking ahead to the second round how much of a favorite is say to be reelected. well he's less favored than it was before today's first round of they vote because he got under forty percent he got thirty nine percent which is a lot less than opinion polls gave him is nearest rival and usually for. him he got twenty six or twenty seven percent and prior to his liberal councillor proly you

prior to today's vote a number of liberal candidates came out and said that they would support any liberal who got through to the second round in all of their supporters go to the polls in chile style and vote against marcel and they would have a combined total of something like fifty four percent of the of of supporter of balls in the second round so if that actually happens what we're looking at i think could be the end of he's been one of the dominant politicians here in the czech republic in this ninety nine period but it looks like his days probably numbered unless he can station five back in the next two weeks in willoughby prague thanks a lot. now german chancellor angela merkel says she hopes to form a new government by easter a soft conservatives reached agreement with the social democrats yesterday or no change formal coalition talks the previous attempt to form a coalition with smaller parties failed late last year so friday's breakthrough has

eased the months of political uncertainty here in germany that are still several hurdles to overcome fast. social democratic leader martin schultz still has a lot of selling to do at a special conference later this month he'll ask six hundred party delegates step back formal talks to renew the grand coalition with angela merkel's conservatives but it's the party's four hundred thousand members who will lend have to give their approval to the final agreement the party's youth group plans to lobby hard against another grand coalition. medical speak to form a new government is already the longest coalition building process in post-war germany and it looks likely to drag on for weeks if not months even so many of her christian democrats are upbeat. view. the results are good for a country the chancellor negotiated very well but the social democrats also

achieved a good deal if we come together it will be good for the country to. germany's european partners including neighbors france and austria have also been expressing relief that a coalition appears to be in the works but in germany itself reaction is mixed the largest opposition party the nationalist a.f.d. has criticised the plans calling them a desperation move and. i fear we will get a bad government the last four years have shown that things have been going downhill in a number of areas and since this coalition of losers wants to stay in power a few more of the same. many voters simply want the politicians in berlin to get on with the business of governing but whether germany is led by another grand coalition will ultimately hinge on what the social democrat rank and file think of the final deal. now to some of the other stories making news around the world.

the new head of south africa's ruling a.n.c. party cyril ramaphosa has vowed to fight corruption and restore his party's reputation from a pose it was elected in december to replace president jacob zuma as head of the a.n.c. made public fury at the graph scandals involving zuma. rescuers have recovered the bodies of two more crew members from an iranian oil tank a burning of china's east coast since last week the blaze broke out after the tanker collided with a cargo ship twenty nine crew members from the time all still unaccounted for. firefighters in australia have been working to contain bushfire as is the country experiencing some of its highest temperatures in decades across to a deployed east coast city of new corsa as the flames threatens the end polls have been no reports of so far of any human casualties. french president

someone un michael has called for the french beget to be recognized as one of the world's cultural treasures michael and propose adding the golden cross to the loaves to the unesco list of world heritage traditions say french begets envied around the world. now the bonus league is back off its winter break and i'm joined in the studio now by only moody from v.w. sports to take us through the weekend action once again ali good to see you. how relieved are you that with his latest back in action oh absolutely relieved and i mean it was a shorter winter break than we had last year because of the upcoming woke up but it still felt like an eternity as a phrase bathers back for a while i just want to take a look now at the results so far because we've got by and winning on friday while today hoffenheim suffered a blow an actual out but they mean frankfurt tree with my book and our beat hamburg beat mine three two in a cracker and got edged how to like they can shout

a meeting in the late game and there are two games on sunday. well you back over to you that what piqued your interest in that little lot well firstly getting back with a bang not by and leverkusen game last friday night full goes in it's always good season goals when you just coming out of the winter break sort of blow away the cobwebs a bit but also as we as you just said cracka between minds no one really expects about to be quite so exciting might soon want to weigh all season taking it to go late how to reeling them back in with that nicklaus food group scoring a hat trick that saw a really good game in that one and we also saw hoffenheim dropping points in the battle for european places as well one of the goals of the season with nicklaus talk of hezbollah and putting through his arnette to give a win if you didn't see that one live i definitely recommend that you check in with the bundesliga on the twenty three sixteen u.t.c.

is all that i'm just touching hoffenheim them because they slipped up with that jewel what do you think it's going to mean and for that to see if one of the top four spots i think they're really going to struggle you know the up against a lot of big teams in that battle you've got dortmund light sic leyva couzin as well as glad back to qualify for the champions league in recent years they've all kind of underperformed so far this season and you'd expect at least a couple of them to really pick up the guy in the back half of the season on top of that often i have just lost the third player to buy in to transfer windows with under wagner the striker moving by and you wouldn't be surprised if the mood is a bit down there having lost a really good goalscorer like that so i think you leonardo's one is really going to have to pull something out the back if hoffenheim going to finish in the top four who are in any big movements in the table so far this weekend we've got a couple of movements but really it's just have to make the league even more so if we can take a look at the table on the screen now we'll see the bye and of course our why ahead

in the in the table way out of the top of the lake shouted just below that and below that we've got eighteen. separated by just a couple of points so that race for european places that we're talking about is so tight and all the teams that i've just been talking about as well it's going to be really interesting to see who can get ahead and whether they can then stay ahead for the rest of the season but we could see it changing on a weekly basis pretty much and it's a similar story down at the bottom of the table if we take a look at their cologne way out at sea at the bottom of the table they look like they're relegated already but above that we've got six teams separated by just five points so it's going to be very tight it's going to be almost like a different team every week is in crisis so although the top and bottom places look set in stone there's still a lot for the fans to keep themselves interested fact of the city and of course last night we had my own winning three one up by elated and i want your take on not match would you make that but same old buy in isn't it you know

a lot of teams are in flux this season by and just keep on being by and you know they took a two goal lead in that one with the goals for martinez and reed berry to get paid back by having fallen by as so often is the case by had enough to get and cross the line with thomas drake as restoring it so you go lead and securing the victory. the last time they actually want to live because he was fine he is a god and the coach back then was applying to us so it's it's just back to the good old days basically for buying at the moment because just knows how to win with that team he fits them like a glove and he does all the midi from v.w. sports thanks a lot for joining us. now the first baby panda to be born in france has made his public debut at a zoo in the south of paris the county five month old is named you want mang which means the realisation of a wish or accomplishment of a dream one man will be sent to a chinese panda reserve when he's waned in two or three years and the best i can

actually watch because they read they're only around two thousand pounds as well. you're watching news live from berlin stay with us we'll have plenty more coming up at the top of the alpha phi alpha. flight and dortmund's shell to leipzig the biggest favor team sleeve got all the best goals we've got all the action the double is the whole of germany but all shared experience every match that. one does link up every weekend here on w. beat the germans new and surprising new specks of noise and culture in germany. u.s. american keep music takes a look at germany.