says the voters across germany have rightly expected of us. so much that we heard and it got come they're saying ok we failed to deliver but it's not just this vote is that are we seeing a continuation of this splintering of the political center of the middle in germany absolutely i mean it's a it's a for the fragmentation of the political landscape in germany but also in europe so one could say ok this is a europe wide trend the arrival of the far right if tea party in the jumble in this talk the parliament in 2017 in this pos general elections that would be marks a turning point in terms of having just another party in parliament making more difficult to get majorities but also the green party reidy managing to put themselves set themselves apart from the other parties offering an alternative to those who don't want to shift to the right who also resent the major parties also picking up some of the rhetoric of the far right if deep particularly conservative

c.d.u. and this is you sister party had regent actions last year when they 1st started they started off sounding like a fart if t. and then made a bit of a turn around to suddenly start protecting bees and pick up on those issues so clearly they missed the boat on the issues of particular this young voters what are the implications for the german government if you look at those results both of the coalition partners not performing particularly well can we say that this government will remain stable and continue to move forward well we can't fish or tonight's the social democrats they've had nervous breakdowns before they have they've had their leadership battles and they're probably set up for yet another leadership battle here and to not of the party to. being potentially on her way out i think the next couple of days will be absolutely key how her own party responds with her party is still behind her. i understand that the party leadership wants to remain in this governing coalition but if there are lots of within the s.p.d.

that could cut short this what we know is the final term of anger the map will hear in office the next couple days will be very interesting and the reason why and could come come boy i mentioned next weekend is because the c.d.u. has its own internal meeting then i could see some big consequences coming from this vote our chief political editor michel because no thank you very much. well tonight's voting is all about seats in the european parliament of course so let's take a look at why this institution is so important. the european elections are the 2nd largest election in the world after india's each of the be used 28 member states has a fixed number of parliament members or piece proportional to their population. germany has the highest number of peace followed by france and italy. there are 751 piece as of now but that number will be reduced to 705 post

brackets it with some u.k. seats being redistributed. the e.u. parliament has many powers ranging from adopting and amending the e.u. laws to overseeing the 145000000000 annual budget. it's the only organ within the e.u. there's directly elected by e.u. citizens that makes it the representation of the people 510000000 to be exact. well of british voters cast their ballots in the elections earlier this week despite the united kingdom's intention to leave the course bragg's that has dominated the election campaign there our correspondent vessel is standing by in london hi barbara good to see you i heard somebody very aptly described this vote there earlier as the u.k. being forced to go to a wedding it didn't want to we're seeing results now trickling in from this vote we don't have any firm numbers yet but what do you expect to see. well we see 1st

trends we see cities like leeds for instance being lost to the labor party in favor of the brics a party of niger for irish and so that is probably going to be the trend of this evening as per usual results are trickling in slowly and birches going to take several hours bar to niger for arjun the brics a party whose whole program is in the name will sort of be in the lead and the question is only whole big the lead is going to be labor is really going to get working the liberal democrats will manage to sort of collect a lot of the pro european vote that has gone away from labor and the bit that has gone away from the conservatives and the conservatives of course will be the big story off tonight because they will be just out and out whipped and the question is just whole horrible that within it's going to be they were earlier sort of doing

expectation management and said they expect to lose all they seats in the european parliament bar probably won in the southeast part of this comes in a week where we start to reset may announce that she is going to step down as the head of the conservative party what does all of this mean for her successor. for the successor of to reason may may that but rebar is johnson michael gove or somebody else this is a relative disaster because he is going to have to start with a party that is so early do you moralize then that is also deeply split because if they will look at the results for the bricks of party they will acknowledge that a lot of those voters of course have come from their rose however they are also pro european voters in the conservative party may be a minority but a sizeable one and how to bring those 2 together impossible the task is not getting

any. easier and parliament is also split it will remain in the seats will be distributed just as they are before this and after this vote and so the new prime minister will have to do the impossible he will have to somehow deliver breaks it as to resume a said all of us and at the same time somehow bring together the other side it's not doable in a realistic way and so we we're all waiting for a miracle archery. right barbara baseball for us in london thank you very much barbara. all right let's go back to our brussels our bureau chief max huffman has been getting reactions there in the european capital max. right so when it goes well with the interview you just have with bob bob is live back in london because of course one of the big ironies here in brussels is that the braggs a party of nigel for raj might turn out in the end to be the biggest national

delegation in the european parliament because it appears that they are so successful back in the u.k. and one of those well brecht's the tears that will end up again in the european parliament is bill ever rich and we just wanted to find out you know what's the rationale behind what they're doing on the one hand they're against the e.u. they want to step out of the e.u. on the other hand they're now going to start a new term of the european parliament and my colleague catherine martin's talks in earlier here's the interview. bill etheridge your party the end of your party is to leave the european union why are you representing yourself well we're doing this to make sure that the politicians in westminster get the message that the people of the u.k. still want to leave and they've got to get on with it and we proving the point in a massive style tonight it's a wonderful night. a wonderful night for your party but you are opposed to the

european union so you as a member of the european parliament what is your agenda for my gender for the last 5 years of being here is to be in highlight what's going on to communicate to the people back home to report on what's happening and also to try to stop some of the things which i think could be damaging to the u.k. what for example the fact we can do a trade deals and the fact that there's a lot of legislation a rules can through which my suits all the parts of europe not the u.k. but is it unfair that your daily life is paid kind of sponsored by the european parliament who would very hard we are elected to represent people's view. we come here we vote we get involved in the debates you know that's a big part of the non-consent of us 5 years have been very hard work very rewarding you know we do our posts but we're here to represent a certain point of view which is to leave it that's what we're here for thank you very much. you can tell we all have sort of a hard time wrapping our heads. you know around the concept of

a breadth of party being in the european parliament after it's already clear that the u.k. wants to leave the european union i can tell you we all expect that kind of a bumpy ride for this new european parliament at least until the u.k. really leaves the european union all right max thank you we'll talk to a little bit later. now let's get a roundup of the rest of the day's news with michael okwu. u.s. president donald trump has started a state visit to japan by teeing off a round of golf with prime minister shinzo abbay trump says he wants to strike a deal with japan to address what he calls a trade imbalance between the 2 countries north korea's missile tests are also likely to be on the agenda but so far the visit has mostly focused on fun. a heavyweight fighter in a black leather jockstrap sizing up the opposition and throwing loses out of the ring was perhaps donald trump was going to get some ideas for his next move in his

trade and diplomatic negotiations from the sumo wrestlers. but in fact this was all part of a rich entertainment package that's been around or 2 with golf laid on for him by japan's shinzo abbé for the u.s. president's 4 day visit to japan. and a sushi meal with their wives too. but lying beneath the surface is the issue of trade between the 2 countries trump expressed his dissatisfaction about the trade deficit with japan almost as soon as he arrived in 2018 it was almost 60000000000 dollars mostly related to the auto industry or. for both sides it's hard to reach an understanding at this time specifically in terms of automobiles the u.s. has announced a delay to its decision on whether to increase tariffs on cars and auto parts for 180 days so there won't be a conclusion any time soon. the u.s.

is also hoping that its agricultural products will enter japan at a lower tariff but with japan's upcoming elections it's difficult for it to make such concessions if they can't resolve the trade issues though at least the 2 go for can enjoy some time together. let's take a quick look at some of the other stories making news around the world. a powerful earthquake has struck northern crew the magnitude 8 quake in a remote area of the amazon jungle was felt around the country it was also detected hundreds of kilometers away in the capital one person is reported to have been killed and several others injured. there's been fresh fighting outside the disputed good many city of tons militias allied to the internationally recognized government fired on positions held by hutu rebels pro-government forces claim they're advancing but say at least 10 of their fighters have been killed in recent days. to football now and sunday was party time in the

city of munich is byron returned home after defeating leipzig 3 nil in the german cup final on saturday biron celebrated their domestic league and cup double triumph in front of thousands of fans in the city's center this is their 12th double it's tradition for the club to appear on the city hall balcony trophies in hand some $15000.00 fans showed up to cheer on the players. that you knew now back to our special coverage of the european elections which to me thank you very much michel well let's go straight to back to brussels where our bureau chief max huffman has been getting a reaction there in their european capital max i hope you can hear us there you are . for handed over here to brussels because we have one of the 2 leading spits and we already talked months with a bit earlier i don't know if you followed the show talked to

a lot of those people from from the liberals as well but one was missing plans to months the so-called the candidate or so-called because the german word somehow is that was itself for the social democrats now if you've been following you know that the social democrats haven't been doing so well this evening especially in germany where they only have 15 percent to say that this is a catastrophe is an understatement so our reporter catherine martens asked him one very important question that we are. a short statement and is this a disappointing result for you tonight well we already always knew it was going to be a tough election and i think it is clear that we're going to have. a negotiation to make sure we have a majority in this parliament this pro european in that is that puts the fight against the climate crisis is the fight against social injustice in the 1st place let's see how far we can get with that who you want to work with. and now you hear

of the social democrats talking a lot about climate change here at the european parliament today something they didn't really do on the campaign trail that much and the reason we assume for that is that they're trying to get the greens that were very successful tonight so far into their camp to maybe have a slight chance to actually form an alliance that has a majority to electrons to moments to the e.u. commission president but with the results we have so far that seems increasingly on the realist. again a little bit later. now one of the european union's most prominent jobs is also up for grabs as we heard the role of the president of the european commission john klobuchar has been doing that job for the last 5 years but he's not up for re-election so let's meet the people who are looking to replace that. he's got i would do everything to defend this year i think we as greens take the battle i

would propose rather new which is scaled back we have work to do that migration is an opportunity strike we introduce the minimum wage to every member state they are all running for the e.u. commission president moderated by start off all the liberals on the greens monthly to be about all the conservatives funds to moments where the social democrats younes out a deal is conservative rep on this candidate and. it's all the party. they are the 6 leading candidates but hang on a minute who are they and does anyone know anything about them do you know any of them. and do you know him. any idea or. have you ever seen her. having. dutchman france to mom and speak some language as he once more social justice german month will be about is calling for secure europe for example by european f.b.i.

denmark's moderate best star is standing for self-confidence and women's rights left wing equal from budget is a trade unionist and this fighting for social rights the german scott kelly is promoting and european climate friendly future the czech republic xians idealism favor the e.u. but once more sovereignty for individual nation states they are all committed to the european union but what are the biggest challenges what solutions do they need to offer for the future the fragmentation between member states a lot of distrust which we have which has increased over the past years between member states also between national capital and brussels liberal moderate of a star and social democrat funds to moments are the only candidates who have already had some experience as a minister is that an advantage for the job obviously it is an asset if you have had experiences at national level because in many cases national political parties

are not really supportive of their european and they're not pushing them they're rather pushing their own national candidate so you don't see visually that they exist but one man has definitely been in the spotlight on the european stage michel barnier who could be the joker in the pack he's not officially a candidate but he might just end up getting the job that's the role regarded negotiator he enjoys the respect and trust of many hats of state and government and . in the end that could be way more important than a loaded t.v. debate. or while those lead candidates to become the next european commission president are going to hold a news conference in just a little bit we're going to go live to those statements when they come to us but for now we're going to talk a little bit more about the results that we've seen so far tonight with our chief political editor michelle who is with us and also got avoid a research associate at the center for international studies at oxford university

good to have you both here with us together there is a lot to pick apart a lot to talk about we said well let's start with you you know one of the overarching narratives that we've heard in the lead up to this vote time and again is that the political center is splintering that we're seeing fragment of fragmentation of the political landscape not just here in germany but across europe did this vote essentially cement that trend. well it confirmed that trend. at the same time and picking these elections because there's no part 5 percent threshold and many in european elections which you see doesn't apply so you have much greater fragmentation don't you see a lot of votes in a sense lost to individual issue candidates so they don't really feed into that mainstream so it makes it look even more fragmented than it would be if you had the 5 percent threshold and suddenly it's an attack on big tent parties which are struggling to basically hold it together to still unite all different age groups we

spoke about a lot about this evening a particular relation with the greens that managed to droid a lot of those young voters which have basically no longer turning to parties like the social democrats big tent social democrat or the conservatives to try and change these policies from within they want they're looking for something else and that really is an issue that these parties have to grapple with mishear we were also talking about this a little bit earlier about these lines of political division being redrawn in a way and you were saying something very interesting in talking earlier about the values also in the shifting political landscape and how that is also changing tell us more about that indeed i think what we're seeing is a. shift historically political cleavages in europe of played on the x. axis which was an economic axis sort of speak that exodus is not disappearing entirely but is being complemented by a y. axis or by we have a new cleavage but it's just much more to do with we didn't see politics sort of speak. national populous parties i've been foster

offering a structured political offer to those people that were seeking to be represented in that respect now and i think that is the interesting thing that we should be looking in next 5 years or so we are slowly getting a structure political offer on the other end of the spectrum we did greens on the one hand but also did leave roll some of the. older trying to offer the opposite kind of open cosmopolitan offer and so i think we're moving off to roll from a bi polar political system so to speak to a quadripolar one across europe so it's a new line along progressive versus nationalist policies in a way what do you think of that michel because a lot of us we've been talking a lot about the populist parties and how well they're going to do have they made a good showing here from the results that we've seen so far they've made i mean in germany they feel it's solid showing they've gained support in comparison to the

past european elections but they've lost support in comparison to the 12.7 percent that they might get in general elections when they came as the new political kid on the block into the parliament what i find particularly interesting is that they came with this negative narrative against migration. being for a kind of a fortress europe being against something i think the interesting new lease of life into this political debate here to take you from the green party is that they also come with a positive kind of more yes we can message and that that actually resonates and that is now paying out with the votes is having said that you know a lot of young voters for whom. i mean 90 percent of people who are pro so this is not a hotly debated issue across all age groups but particular young but if you simply cannot imagine a europe. that is that. putting

a borders again and thoughts dividing up again so i think they're very different national debates going on the same time i mean it's a the we see the. becoming the strongest policy for the 1st time so yes this identity politics but do you counter that by sounding a bit more. to the right do you counter that with a new message and i think we're seeing a bit of both and we've seen the green party prove that you can also. i mean they didn't win the election that says but they are the big winner of the night you can be the big winner of the night with a positive message we were talking about this a little bit earlier as well that maybe we're talking too much about the populous parties here not enough about the astonishing results that we're seeing from the greens and some from some of the other groups that have done very well here and indeed if you look at the in terms of seats within european parliament there are 2 big winners 25 new extra seats for effectively deedes let's

call it a soviet me a line and the nationalist alliance and the same number of seats to the 5 seats for deliberate that include mcchrystal and probably an additional 16 new extra seats for the greens so indeed i think whilst we have to recognize that there is these nationalist search results will search that it's almost the opposite now the question is how these 2 new forces we'll manage to structure themselves within europe in parliament and how effective it will be at swaying discourse one way you idiot or because the 2 traditional party of all of the center left and center right they're slowly but surely bleeding somehow and so it will need to support let's talk more about why they're leading michel you might you touched on this idea of of negative messaging of populist parties and if you looked at some of the billboards here in germany ahead of the vote you saw the centrist parties with messages like we don't want war again that's why you should vote for our. parties

or we want to keep the populists out of parliament so vote for our party did they fail to create a positive vision of what europe can be. but i mean you also have the green saying that europe is the best idea that europe of a had which will seemed like being a bit of such. but they certainly recognize the whole issue of climate change and speaking in issue that people really want to talk about and really wants to get into the nitty gritty on that yeah the negative i mean i don't know are you also saw the social democrats campaign and so kind of a black and white picture destroyed in against a kind of shiny new. positive image of what you know europe in germany could be like and you kind of wonder whether we should've seen of evolved in terms of message and in fact we didn't see a lot of content on those billboards full stop it was a lot of kind of images and and. and emotion and i think it and also

identity questions i guess and i also wonder how emotive in the end but this is for somebody else of thesis on how emotive in the end an election choice is. both to the right and to the left and wouldn't just not going to get to the bottom of you know how voters really take but i thought it was quite kind of striking this time around that whenever anyone wanted to go into more detail and we had like the phasing out of coal we had. trading license trading. almost felt like you people's eyes were blazing over and then you had you tube a come out with a really positive message everybody is is failing on on tackling climate change because it's all too complicated essentially. that should be priority number one and that was a very simple message that then suddenly really resonated with people so i think it's a lot more complex than just left and right and it's also an emotive issue but until you want to say something like that i think what we have to be aware. so that

whilst we have these european elections effectively we're still dealing with significant national public sphere. political discourse is still very much national and it will be crucial how these different forces will structural themselves and how they will cooperate and give an example here in germany the greens of the only extremely well and they're very strong in terms of public messaging they ok. but they're not as strong as there in france it's almost the other way around the liberals who are significantly strong and. significantly stronger than what the liberals are here in germany then you've got a country where you have.