this is d.w. news live from berlin germany prepares for a political shake up it's election day in bavaria one of germany's richest and most conservative states but voters are a neighbor belly is moved and there could be serious aftershocks in berlin also coming up a new deadline looms in syria a demilitarized zone to protect civilians is due to take effect on monday but there's reports that hard line fighters have yet to storm the drawn. and germany's football slump continues a heavy defeat against another women's coach bill can live is under pressure after

a string of poll results. on karl naslund welcome to the program all eyes in germany are on a varia today as people there head to the polls in state elections the vote is an important barometer for angle americans government after a difficult year for her coalition now bavaria is not just known for its beer and later hosen it's germany's biggest aint an economic powerhouse and it's traditionally conservative in fact the conservatives haven't lost an election here in more than sixty years this is how the state parliament looks right now chancellor merkel's sister party the christian social union or c.s.u. holds an absolute majority in bavaria but polls show that the c.s.u. is losing votes in today's election and probably even that absolute majority any shockwave from. the bavarian vote will be felt in berlin chancellor merkel's

interior minister or so they offer is the c.s.u. party leader a poor result today could see calls for his removal further destabilizing miracle's trouble coalition polls also indicate that voters and of area will strengthen to opposition parties the environmentalist greens looks set to become the second biggest party in bavaria and the far right populist alternative for germany is expected to have a strong showing as well germany's established parties are bracing for the outcome of this very election we haven't reported now from d.w. political correspondent bob young on their mark in berlin. the election and varia instills hope in some fear in others the mood around burdened sky stag is growing tends to varia is hundreds of kilometers away from here but parties in berlin expect an earthquake that could shake up german politics as

a whole. inside that high start building all parties are busy carrying out internal meetings the conservative parties are especially nervous. christian democratic union form a parliamentary group with their very insistent party the christian social union. they are bracing for disastrous results the c.s.u. has never been as low in opinion polls as it is now. does a lot in alarm bell we have to make efforts to strengthen the traditional parties again we have to work on getting the core of society excited about politics again. those most excited about politics are outside that core the far right a fifty party might enter the bavarian parliament. but i'm in a good mood of course we expected to get forty percent of the vote and the greens

are also expected to do well the general trend sees smaller parties gaining from the larger parties losses the social democrats are also using voters. the blame game will almost certainly begin after the poor results the two big centrist parties are projected to get and many will point in this direction and hold chancellor america responsible for the decline of their party's. america's current government was formed just seven months ago the toughest period might lie ahead following the varian election. let's cross to the bavarian capital munich where maximiliano kosik is standing by max this of course a highly anticipated election voting started there a couple hours ago how is turnout looking. yes voting started at eight am this morning here in the varian capital in munich and in all the other cities in

germany's largest and economic strongest states nine point five million voters are eligible to cost their votes and their decision will lead to the results back here in the next again the i'm in the state parliament and as what we've heard so far we've been to a couple of polling stations turnout is quite good at the moment especially in munich which made the because there is a marathon going on this day so a lot of people are anticipating this election so they come in early they want to cause the votes there is of me just change in this town and the rest of the country where you're running shoes to the polls today maybe there are we've been hearing a lot about how the governing c.s.u. they're bracing for some bad results today how bad could this get. well the question is how bad the result is going to be indeed and the interesting part in bavaria is that still almost hall of the voters are still undecided so it could be that the c.z. the very conservative are not going to be as badly doing as current polls are

suggesting also question is going to be how good the turnout is going to be it's always quite low here in the very state election at least in the recent years and that has always been for the benefit of the conservatives because they have a quite stable voter base they always have the people coming out for them and the question is going to be in this particular action are these new motivated people who have been in recent post jess and they want to go for the left greens or for the far right if the other actually going to come out today and are they going to and this almost six decade near policy rule one policy rule of the conservative see is another big question today of course has to do with the chancellor how much of a threat does this vote pose for all the americal could she be more damaged by this after the election. state election like this one of the very end especially this one and the very always very interesting for bilin and they're going to certainly pay a lot of attention because it's kind of temperature measuring of like seeing how the

mood with the electorate is and for german chancellor angela merkel this is going to be important because the very end voters in service have said ahead that they're not only going to vote on their state government but they're also going to vote on how the german government is doing at the moment you have to remember that the c.z. of the very conservative are part of the german government with german chancellor angela merkel it's a sister party who's going to be voted on today and of course this could mean if the c.z. the bavarian concerts are doing badly this is also going to be a sign for german chancellor angela merkel that her politics are not doing well here in bavaria max kosik in berlin i'm sorry in munich thanks very much. now to some other stories making news around the world and. racism rally in berlin drew an estimated two hundred forty thousand people on saturday that's according to organizers protesters marched with signs backing tolerance for migrants and in opposition to all right groups the demonstration is one of germany's biggest

political rallies in recent years. russian opposition leader alexina vali has been released from jail in moscow he spent some fifty days behind bars on two back to back sentences for staging legal protests involve the supporters say the kremlin is trying to sideline. to syria now where a deadline is fast approaching to create a demilitarized zone in northern province the zone should be established by monday as part of a deal agreed to by turkey and russia last month it's meant to prevent a government assault on the rebel held area which the u.n. says would provoke a humanitarian catastrophe but there are reports that hard line fighters have yet to start withdrawing from the area. syria's last major rebel stronghold is just a few kilometers from here an uncomfortable thought for jay z. and twenty twelve he fled from islam is fighters in this town singe are in the south of italy a province now the syrian army has regained control after bitter fighting what

remains is rebel sadness and anger against the islamists. honestly how could there be reconciliation with the people who killed my relatives and forced me to flee how could i ever sit down with them that would truly be a bitter pill to swallow. since i was once home to thousands today there are just two hundred residents most of them loyal supporters of president assad no one here really believes in a political solution with islamists they believe military force is the only language the is the misunderstand even if it means death and suffering. and then you might be tempted you can't trust them they're liars i don't want a political solution i hope the army takes control of the whole province so that she can have some peace of their own are. these men are ready for action at all

times they are part of the christian militia on the front line in southern and live they are under its control and their mission is to defend christians against islamist fighters the islamists are supposed to withdraw by monday along with their heavy weapons at least that was part of turkey and russia's deal to create a de-militarized zone here but the christian militias leader says the islamists are actually reinforcing their defenses rather than withdrawing. holding the ceasefire that was agreed to but the islamist militants are digging trenches and building bunkers we wouldn't normally tolerate that is but our orders are not to intervene but for now things are quiet on the frontline the ceasefire has bought some time but not trust and president assad supporters don't want to see his victories against the islamists stop at it land even if it means risking heavy casualties. two of the most contentious roman catholic figures of the twentieth

century have been made saints by pope francis in a ceremony that again the pontiff canonized hope hall the sixth and the murdered salvadorian archbishop oscar romero among with five lesser known people tens of thousands of people in st peter's square expected for that ceremony among them worth several thousand from el salvador where romero is a national icon. joining me now in the studio is martin religious affairs analyst martin as we heard a couple of figures there with quite a history can you walk us through those two main figures being canonized today well i mean these are two figures that were centrist in their time so you know they both represent a centrally essential central position in the respective domains of the six was basically centrists who actually push forth the reforms of the second vatican council and he do it trying to mediate the space between very conservative forces

and very traditional as far as is. there for of course he was criticized from both sides but i think that it it's very telling that this vatican is actually interesting in pushing this figure to fourth precisely because to some degree it shows a model for the element of a new vatican new church which is one that actually tries to mediated space between you know very conservative force and very modernizing force on the other hand or middle with somebody that essentially spend the last part. of his. per year if you charge he should be essentially trying to mediate a conflict a very bloody conflict basically calling both on the right and on the left which one of the two parts in this conflict the military and. avoid you know shooting and avoid civilian casualties one of the most daring stunt so from a job before he was killed was structurally. army people to stop shooting in civilian and of course this meant that very conservative church forces that were

very close to the government essentially declared human enemy and therefore well the story goes that he was killed by death squads and so other so very significant figure precisely because it shows a church that he's very close to the people and against political forces see these two would you also say they're somewhat either controversial contentious figures for some in the catholic church or contacts have been already been lost and i mean most certainly you know i mean figures that are centrist engine up in a certain line and you're logically word the left or with the right specially in a period of time up you know in the mid eighty's and late seventy's in which you had very clear ideological lines that were being used to draw political battle lines within the vatican and abroad meant that essentially they were not seen. for either of the parts and at the very same time they were seen as you know unwelcome unwelcome basic errors that seem those discussions. all six of cores that suffered the fate i mean there you can really see what happens when somebody sort of taking

this kind of position on a line position in middle of an armed conflict so in this sense i think that they were going to virtually i don't know if by today standards we would say that they're controversial would probably say that they are you know fears of pacific ation perhaps in a very convoluted and very in a very nice thick setting and the big names in the catholic church i thank you very much. their wheels for joining us. and just a reminder of the top story we're following for you right now people in the german state of bavaria have begun voting in the state election that could further destabilize chancellor angela merkel's fragile coalition government polls show her conservative allies the c.s.u. are likely to lose their absolute majority. you're watching news from berlin stay tuned for more at the top of the hour and for the latest updates you can check out our website that's t w dot com or follow us on twitter thanks for watching.

and list all consuming conflict over the world and religion. thirty years.