good to get out of there but. this is c w news live from berlin germany faces a major political shakeup and they are not a surprise resignation as head of the social democrats raises questions about the stability of the german government chancellor merkel and the head of her party are jews away and shortly join us for full coverage. oh. i'm on you chris mackinnon thanks so much for joining us the leader of

germany social democrats is to step down after just 14 months in the job and they are not as says she also plans to give up her seat in the german parliament unexpected announcement comes as her posse agonizes over its future following a double election defeat not less was under pressure off the german voters hand of the social democrats there was ever a result in last month's here elections the s.p.d. also lost a state election in braman for the 1st time in more than 17 years senior party members are due to meet on monday to discuss the policies future direction analysis has released a written statement about her decision this is what she set. discussions in the parliamentary group and feedback from the policy have shown that i no longer have the necessary support to carry out my juices on monday i will therefore resign as chair of the s.p.d. i don't choose day i will resign as chair of the s.p.d.

parliamentary group. for some analysis i'm joined in the studio by political correspondent kate brady kate thanks for joining us nonis was supposed to put her leadership of the parliamentary group to vote on tuesday why this sudden resignation caylee she's taken this decision into her own hands and as you mentioned that was for the position as parliamentary group leader but in this decision today she's actually announced it will be standing down as party leader as well to separate. positions in the social democrats to huge decisions to make and this is clearly a very direct reaction to those really quite dismal results that we saw just a week ago in the elections with the s.p.d. now sacked as the 3rd strongest party in germany they walked away with just under 60 percent of the votes dismal for any party but especially for a woman that is currently in the governing coalition of course they are currently

governing germany with merkel's conservatives what does this mean for the for the s.p.d. well clearly they have a lot of soul searching today right now and they say is going to really be interesting to see how the social democrats want to move forward this is a conversation that we've had before as well not so long ago when andree analysis oaf was appointed party leader of the s.p.d. and there was certainly hopes that among the members of the social democrats that she would be able to move the party away from the center ground of germany's political spectrum where they've drifted towards joining that time in coalition with merkel's conservatives and really then redefine exactly what it is that the social democrats stand for and of course under analysis it seems has failed to fulfill those hopes and we can have a look now actually at a report we have here on. her political career. fund to be

an honest 1st joined the democratic party more than 20 years ago as the leader of the party's youth organization. she studied german and political science in one of her very 1st interviews she told g w that a career in politics was not in the cards. shopping it for you but i don't want to stay in politics for the rest of my life so after being chair i want to look for a real job and for that i need a good degree. but after finishing university 4 years later now let's rose in the ranks of the s.p.d. 1st as a parliamentarian then labor minister and ultimately party leader germany's minimum wage law 1st introduced in 2015 was one of her key achievements now as has a reputation for being outspoken after her rousing speech at an s.p.d. convention party members agree to change course and form a coalition with angela merkel's conservatives rather than enter the opposition of the good side and we're going to negotiate and get some more good results that's

why voting yes today is worth it. now as was the party's 1st female leader since it was founded more than 150 years ago she was tasked with steering the s.p.d. back to its left wing roots but many are now asking if the decision to again partner with the center right c.d.u. was indeed worth it. has there been any reaction still from the s.p.d. so far well interestingly on the hasn't actually been any statement official statement as such from the s.p.d. yet but there has been mixed reactions even on social major from lead in s.p.d. members. this situation is very very serious at the moment to say otherwise would be wrong we are aware of this and therefore it is important for me to again to state clearly that we are not going to make any rash decisions rather we will consult with one another and think carefully about our next steps it is important to send the signal that this party is not without leadership this is

apartheid for. all right kate so how will nala says resignation impact the governing coalition with michael cd i mean this really does impact jim because the hold of it certainly does i mean the governing coalition between this grand coalition between merkel's conservatives and the s.p.d. it was already in a very fragile state of course it was arnie formed in early 2018 and already it's faced face several crises not so long ago of course you might remember the crisis involving the interior minister and last summer and so this is going to send tremors through that coalition once again of course we are expecting angela merkel herself and a great from karrenbauer the leader of the conservatives both to give separate statements this evening the conservatives were actually meeting today anyway to reassess and see what went wrong in the e.u.

elections last week of course they also suffered huge losses in those elections so this resignation today really does bring into question how much of a stable coalition is there right now and how much of a credible coalition partner is the s.p.d. when already after just 14 months the party leader has resigned that's right it's not looking good for the s.p.d. i mean is that looking forward is there an obvious successor for as s.p.d. leader well if the s.p.d. really wants to push ahead with this plan to renew itself and revitalize its profile then there isn't really an obvious candidate right now as we saw just it now and no turn from a sound bite sorry from mother dray and she's a state premier in the state of rhineland latinate she's already a name that's been thrown around also in the finance minister and vice chancellor all off shots but again if they really want to revitalize the party and move away

from that center ground move towards the left and figure out really what exactly it is that they social democrat. stand for in 2019 then really the names that you'd be expecting them to go full well right now i believe we are able to bring in. blue cross from parliamentary studios is that right. we can bring william in political reporter ok we're going to yeah i hear that he is that absolutely hi william let's talk a little bit more about the this the grand coalition between the c.d.u. and the s.p.d. now some political analysts say governing with michael cd was simply a mistake was it a mistake for the s.p.d. to join this coalition it certainly looks that way the s.p.d. has been struggling as kate has pointed out for years to define itself as distinct from the c.d.u. the c.d.u. has slowly over many years under the leadership angle americal been nudging to the left taking going into s.p.d. territory so to speak taking up a lot of the s.p.d.

issues and leaving the s.p.d. with very little to stand for if we go back to the 2017 election campaign here in germany this was very much the same topic of conversation at the espy needed to revitalize itself redefine itself march in schultz on the eve of that election after he failed to deliver the results of his party was hoping and medical was seen to be the victor the victor again said there would be no no grand coalition again and sure enough 6 months later there was again a grand coalition so the s.p.d. has been struggling to figure out where it best can be both to lead the country and to lead itself as a political party as in any kind of relevant way here in germany well in the establishment parties across the e.u. including obviously the city and the s.p.d. still disappointing results in the european elections come we say that they're facing an existing existential crisis all things that for them i think stablished parties whether you're on the center left or the center right basically stands for

status quo for things as they are don't make many changes but voters as we've seen in the in the european elections last weekend and in national elections all across the e.u. are are fed up with things the way they are with business as usual climate change is something that individual voters that average people are starting to feel or perceive and that has become a major if. it's not the top issue concerning voters they want change there's a lot of upheaval in societies at the european level and national level and that is the challenge to a stop 1st alice parties to find their way to find a new voice to appeal to people who really want change when the parties themselves for decades have been seen and defined as very much business as usual that's right i mean obviously the greens made huge gains in the e.u. elections kate is was the environmental aspect one of the main reasons the votes has turned away from the s.p.d. in such huge and huge numbers it certainly was and andrea not less here is stepping

down our social democrats party leader said herself just minutes after those results break last weekend that the issue of climate change was the main issue which they failed to address which is social democrats failed to address in the elections but of course there's a whole plethora of other issues which the social democrats have failed to really address in recent years or at least failed to show where exactly they stand and in this is all part of this project to revitalize the potty and and say exactly what they stand for nowadays of course they used to have this grassroots base a strong base of traditional blue collar workers and society has changed a lot the s.p.d. voters of the 19 fifties and sixties and not the s.p.d. voters of 2019 a lot of these industrial jobs just do not exist anymore so they really need to decide who is it that we want to vote for us and what is it that we actually stand for some really existential questions which are being almost unknown in all the main political parties brady thanks so much and we'll you know

a group going to crawford who is reporting from our studio thanks very much. all right we will have a look at some of the other stories coming up next coming up happening around the world a poll shows that germany's greens have overtaken chancellor angela merkel's conservatives for the 1st time to become the most popular. 27 percent they would back the party in an election that puts them one point ahead of a close look. several people have been injured in venice after a large cruise ship grabbed into a tourist riverboat the accident took place on a busy canal in the center of the city as being a long running debate over whether to allow cruise ships into venice is an iconic but increasingly overcrowded waterway. u.s. secretary of state might compare says washington is willing to talk to iran with no

preconditions speaking in switzerland he said the u.s. will still aim to rein in what he called iran the line activity to form. and china has vowed to fight to the end in the escalating trade dispute with the u.s. speaking at a defense summit in singapore the country's defense minister also warned the u.s. not to meddle in security disputes over self rule taiwan and the contested south china sea. all right some sports news now and liverpool have been crowned champions of european football after defeating tottenham 2 nil in an all english champions league final in madrid that would pose german coach tasted european glory for the 1st time after last year's heartbreaking loss in the final the win also broke club's drought of 6 defeats in cup finals and the match got off to a controversial start just minutes off to kick off let's have a look. a dream start for liverpool fans who saw their side awarded

a penalty for handball after just 24 seconds mohammed so looks at responsibility and smashed a powerful drive down the middle of spurs keeper hubler reseize goal the egyptian forwards 5th goal of the european campaign putting liverpool in the driving seat after a blistering start the game to going to k.g. air with neither side threatening for large parts of the game taught them only came to life late on with sunshine men waiting until the final 20 minutes to give liverpool defender something to worry about with the game entering its final throws liverpool dealt a killer blow substitute develop a really good driving home from a tight angle the semifinal hero rising to be occasion to silva once again to nail the final score liverpool the champions of europe for a 6th time. i talk about the big match i'm joined in the studio by digby sports reporter mark karr again mark liverpool coach lost his previous 2 european final say he must be over the name is is

a happy man as you can imagine yeah it lost as you mention the last 2 european finals and he also lost his last 6 consecutive finals in all competitions so he was the way to it was here where he had to say. i don't want to explain why we wanted to only want to enjoy that we wanted and all the rest is not important it's for all the people around the world in the stadium with. knowledge celebrating like crazy and. liverpool and we would celebrate together we would have a sensational night. so happy man but how significant is this when the top is the crucial victory for a club i would say it's a breakthrough victory even and it's strange that a man has been labelled a loser that has won 2 been this league titles with bruce it off and on the german cup but people with these last 6 finals the last people were starting to wonder if he was buckling under pressure. and those victories with thought went are so long ago no that people will start tomorrow.