music or stop a. rock and religion clash that brings many parallels right party to really so irreconcilable card. rock n roll storage june 17th on t w. o and a very warm welcome indeed to quadriga and our focus this week is on dramatic developments here in german politics the grand coalition government in berlin has for up being thrown into disarray by the resignation of the leader of the social democrats the junior coalition partner andrea no less her announcement that she was frying in the towel came after a disastrous showing for the s.p.d. in the recent european election chancellor merkel said she regretted the decision

but pledged that her government would somehow soldier on critics though are not convinced saying the end is nigh for the coalition and that would also spell the end for the chancellor so a question here on quadriga this week his coalition crisis met a cold teetering and so answer that question i'm joined here in the studio by journalist and author and various klute who say he's in effect angela merkel now runs a caretaker government with no residual ambition at all that is tragic for germany and tragic for europe and indeed also with us is vanessa voom from site online who argues that the ruling coalition is shying away from a reset as she puts it in the end this might harm both parties and our democracy and a very warm welcome to the chordal are told from the business and weekly veterans of aha who believes grand coalitions disrupts the traditional party system and so.

the huge shifts within the electorate. very interesting simon thank you all 3 for being with me here on quarter into this week about to begin with you called them are a lot going on here in berlin at the moment talk of crisis in the government why are people saying that the government's days are numbered. well i would say that the days you can already count off more for the next elections to come up but this government is now buying time and there is not too much probably to expect to be taken from this government anymore. so from what you're saying foreign view foreign countries and foreign into international partners of germany who are looking on at the current situation they can rest assured that america has a steady hand on the tiller or the government is more or less functioning as usual yes they're functioning they're managing yes but they're not. they are just trying to buy time to find out who's going to lead the social democrats which is the next

step they're all interested in and before that which is probably only after the elections in the east because they're all quite afraid of what is going to happen in the east not much is going to happen the message you brought by into alyson going to government under the americans government has been described as a coalition of the desperate and you have said that it's potentially a threat to our democracy that sounds a lot more dramatic and threatening indeed than i think it's a condition of this because the fact that they have lost a lot of choices lots of people don't really want this kind of government anymore and the longer they. keep the power i think they would just harm themselves in the end and not really. bring out the reforms that everybody urgently need to. address i would like to bring you in but 1st of all i'd like to go to. a statement from among called these the companies the info influential president you're not being under the president of the federation of german industries the beady eye and

he didn't mix his words when he described the growing mood of crisis surrounding angela merkel's 4th government let's listen to what he had to say and then we'll hear from. feeling that a lot of the issues the grand coalition addresses do not or no longer reach a large majority of the futile but a coalition government let me make this very clear has gambled away a lot of trust which beat. the coalition government has gambled away a lot of trust that's pretty strong words is this dangerous time for people in government to be rocking the boat. not dangerous but the problem with the trust is that the german economy is suppose both the middle east onto a family owned firms and the larger the list the docks firms they are very unhappy because they're simply pointing out what everyone knows is that the there hasn't been any meaningful domestic reform under merkel ever the the last big reform was

a labor market reform under her predecessor since then she's managed very effectively several international crisis but she's done nothing at home and there are big problems having to do with investments that are too low germany has been investing too little both public and private sector. there's the big issue of china and america and little germany and europe getting ground up between them there's already a fleshly intelligence in the digital transformation were the german economy is behind and now there's climate change and energy and all these other things so there's a lot of things that should be happening that you know that are masked by the putative success of the german economy which could be. should be taken for granted ever and that's why a lot of managers a lot of openness owners business entrepreneurs are very upset because nothing's being done you have been not including. well it was always the big strength of angela merkel being good at reacting being with the balancing that's her kind of

leadership but now i think we have quite at some point that is comparable to the point that her previous s.-a got sugar was at he had. we remember maybe it was sick man of europe germany isn't working all these things and he had its huge labor market reform we're still. seeing the profits of that and now we're in a situation that i'm going to medical should react in the latest election results are a big sign now to do something common changes not just about having a price on carbon and having some tax made. it's about restructuring the whole economy and she should be bold and now taking the step taxes all the industry will be changed if you go on that path sensitive and i serve what is at stake here in germany what is a stake in europe in this crisis. we can see in each country populism rising especially the right wing populism and i think that germany

now has to be strong show that we can be like a modern working society that can also tech the climate crisis and stay open while not letting right wing populist populist take over so this is what is at stake now because i believe when germany becomes even more. or less stable and just dealing with those little things that we cannot stop this wider movement so the crisis we're talking about came about because of germany's social democrats hemorrhaging support but i'm going to merkel's christian democrats are also under huge pressure. to suffer the demoralizing setback in the recent european election for many years now of course the conservatives main asset their unique selling point has been one person who we've mentioned already. after keeping a low profile in recent months johnson america has reemerged and is acting as

a pillar of strength. we will continue the government's work with all due seriousness. and above all with a great sense of responsibility. handed over responsibility for leading the c.d.u. to under great comfort she was to continue macas legacy and succeed her as chancellor in 2 years' time. the christian democrats have little to offer young people worried about climate change and that's clear from the success of this protest video by blogger riza. video show you how folks from the c.b.c. live and how they lack the basic skills to do their jobs and how they're wrecking our lives and future. his video the destruction of the c.d.u. has racked up almost 15000000 views. is yet to come up with a cogent response. but chancellor's current crisis management is a far cry from what we can do this stands back in 2015 new parliamentary elections

on the horizon in germany. talk of fresh elections lots of talk about not being able to contain the crisis has she lost magic touch that has kept her in power for so long. while that's a very good question i don't think that she has really lost it i think many people still appreciate this woman. in the end she just managed a lot of crises and she didn't bring up very she didn't tackle the big questions and the big questions that are now coming to the streets in the big questions that now the youth of addresses for example these were all everything this government did in the past since they are power like 2005 is that they corrected the little things. politics yes they may tweak this and that. and then i think now people just have this bigger questions rising and saying what happened in the

past like 10 years and where where the big issues going there why this changing so fast and why are you not really dealing with these so the question is that. i'm going to mirco axing effectively as a sort of a a parallel german foreign minister on the international stage very visible but at home he's failing to talk all the problems that you have both old 3 been talking about well the immediate reason is that she she made herself a lame duck by stepping back when there were 2 by the way you just mentioned has she lost her touch as a minister just that she hasn't lost her magic touch at all she's been in power so many years and she's still there and she probably will still eke out really sort of this in turn thing the best thing for. undergrad come combo and she's done and they're very close to i mean to stick with the metaphor to actually dropping the battle well that's how this is a problem that we have to start talking about with i think that come combo of a great long german name but while you're talking about merkel she is doing this

optimally she's doing this as skillfully as you can in her position do this i don't know c.d.u. chancellor before her. done at this well they all were voted out or kicked out or pushed out and we were talking we've been talking since 2015 about her being pushed out and here she still is and 11 thing she did was that tactical decision last december to she preempted a coup that she heard about by stepping back from the chair the chairmanship of the her party. with the intention that a.k.k. got it k.k. had to fight for it and with the intention that she could no groomer that a.k.k. could do basically do a long internship to become angela merkel wasn't born chancellor either if you go back to early years as minister and then as party leader. she she had a lot of learning to do to do as well and so she knows a gay has to do that has

a less popular now than merkel is german still like merkel she's also less known and she's struggling a bit now but. but that's what they're going to work on is basically give her an internship blizzard's her documentary bit because you know beauty breaking a law for angle a makeover and saying that she says she's still pretty much on course but at the top of the show we had you saying i'm going to back liz at the helm if i can take a government with no residual ambition when i was talking to her medics or just simply her ability to stay in power ok now the question is she doing anything with that power and you already heard that from cordele she hasn't really done much with her power all these years so the last big reform was her under her predecessor set for my question but except for the 2 decisions i want to nuclear power which probably was the wrong one as well as we get into climate will have to talk about is it was it's this debate is coming up was it smart to exit nuclear power before coal generated power is are they going to talk about that and then they have the

big one was. unlike ration in 2015 that's true so that she has left a legacy but you know there's there's a lot of problems that she can't deal with because she's a lame duck she did that intentionally technically to hold on to power ok enough about anglo american for just a moment code to let tell us about the backdrop to a lot of what we're talking about here is this notion of the german folks. and the idea that they are. pretty much terminal demise what do you make of a lot and can you explain it's a little bit for all of you as well this traditional system is probably history now the latest european election results have shown that to dish nearly and. post-war germany west germany and complete sham any we had 2 camps center right sent to left and 2 big parties one to the right the christian democrats and one minute the ball to the left the social democrat. and the idea was that these 2 parties always could get a majority and that they had different concepts and if one government was not

delivering anymore the other could take over and having these 3 grand coalitions with until america already. this whole idea is. just not working anymore because i'm going to michael has turned to the left she's a social democrats some people in her party say and this is not a positive thing in her party and on the other hand we had before. who also turn to the right and was doing something his own electorate wasn't really saying was a good thing so these are all whole idea is not working anymore and we don't have any. probably any new parties that give us an idea how it could work so the traditional german policies being swept aside to a certain extent from that's a by by tectonic changes there and among those there's a lot of talk about another tectonic change in german politics suddenly the social

media people having an influence on german politics it's being described as a new generation in german politics is that all hype or is this something that i think there's something in it and i wouldn't say social media about people who. have the communication they know how communication works they don't know how to how to get a lot of followers how to. which words to use to really reach a wider audience the younger ones those who are not well educated and so on and so on and so they are all quite young but pros in what they do and they just sneak into the political discourse and we see that the major parties really failing at understanding them and also in adequately reacting to it because they seem so helpless they don't even know what to do with all those kids on the street for example they don't know what to do with us reso video they try to answer them by their own videos but these do not really weigh because they don't they have

something to experience in it it's not part of their language. one woman talk about it's a big policies in demise that it doesn't quite supply across the board because the new the new big force in german politics according to a poll from just a couple of days ago is the greens they all know the strongest party in german politics according to that one poll what does that come from that under this comes that is the direct counter to the rise of the preceding rise of the alternative for germany because what's happened is you had this old left right spectrum that cordle are describing through most of postwar western history but then a new spectrum as in other countries in the entire western from france australia everywhere which is open closed and the alternative for germany especially after the big migration year 2015. what was that took the clear stance for a closed society especially towards foreigners and migrants now of all the other parties the greens are the ones who took the clearest stance for an open society

and so you saw that the the people who wanted to clear message of closed went for the if t but it's stuck nationally at about 13 percent and higher in the east but the people who will who definitely want to plump for open they went to the greens the free democrats the liberal party could have played that role but didn't so the greens have now also come to personify to embody openness and that explains their rise in the recent years and the question is can they rise even more and even become the strongest party as one poll showed in court or the greens are often accused now when people. are looking at that success they're accused of being a sort of a one policy policy do you buy into that you know no definitely they're not even say that a big deal because they always trying to come up with concepts and be prepared to take over some kind of part of government so they're probably not $11.00 issue

party anymore and they are strong. with climate change and they're strong with all the environmental questions and they know that they always have to be a bit ahead of all the other parties they have to be a bit out and come up with new ideas they're not always test fit these new ideas and also. talking about climate change it's not that they've really have given us a clear idea how they would do it but in a way they're always trying to be prepared and be part of the next government so suddenly climate politics are it seems the dominant political narrative in germany well not quite because people in large numbers tend to do things very differently in the east and german states. western germany is going. especially with. the. results germany's major political parties can dream.

in the east of the country the right wing populist alternative for germany is growing stronger in many places they could be. coming state elections. most of germany's big. protection is a major priority. many in the affected areas consider this a big mistake. to them environmental protection is a luxury only rich city folk can afford. can bring the country together. who can bring the country together. i don't think the greens are particularly. attracting this. the green party always

keeps saying and they are working very hard. and the question the question is also a social question because when we look at. suffering from. for example yes of course there are those coal miners but 1st of all we can find solutions with . different people of the poorest people we have. with climate change. we do we do have to find. other solutions on how to move how to be more inclusive about how to use energy differently so that we can just keep on living. more sustainable and i think that we can tackle these questions another thing with. they do protecting minority rights now we know that there has not too many minorities in the former east but in the end they also protect from and they also profit from this discourse because it's all about protecting the poor ones for example those who are for gotten those who

need more a presentation all of these questions are inherently also green issues. kotler you have been quoted as saying to these to the west a more divided than before i don't know if you meant ever before all more recently but tell me about the divide because it could be crucial in what happens next in german politics you mention this already so there's less common ground now as election results show and it's quite difficult to get your idea across in the east and and you could also argue that. in the east there is a lot of rural folk some people have to. drive longer to get to work and all these things and they live from really in other apartments it's difficult to have a climate friendly policy because it's more expensive for the people there it's hard to get this idea across that they will the will profit from it so and people they feel maybe

a 2nd time left behind or not really. taken seriously like in the 1900 like every family there was one or more people who lost their jobs and they had raided to have a huge. modernization to take and now when the middle generation is gone already the young people move to the metropolitan areas or to the west the people that are left behind in huge areas in big regions they think what is coming was he was trying to take care of us what's next for us we would like to have a share as well and they're not really the best idea to get in place is one other aspect i think in the east germans didn't grow up with the west german political parties these big tent parties the center left center right bloc even the greens there. essentially that you know and in a way the most western part of the party if there was they joined the bundestag the parliament in the 1980 s. they came out of the west german counterculture of the sixty's and seventy's all of

this the eastern us didn't have nots why you have 2 parties that are unusually strong in east germany and really only in east germany which are both protest parties one is the successor the left the successor party or the descendant of the east german communist party and the other is the a 50 which in the east both of them and then there are is there are even voter migrations between them and between nonvoters but they're essentially a lot of them are just giving a middle finger to that political party system as they see it which they still view as a west german part party system to some extent. i would say and then but i think the problem is not that they rely on the car or lots of me but then the problem is a problem of representation and this is where the parties really have to work on and see how many put it in from the east we have in our parties am how much are they dealing with the issues that they have there and these are the things that really have to be tied at the moment to not just let them stick with the a 50 and

the left party and we have these key regional elections coming up in eastern germany and in the autumn in september and october do you think that that is going to be a point at which the german government really does fall apart because a lot of people are predicting that the results are going to be so damaging for democracy and. it's going to push the current government over the edge yes definitely and i don't see how we can i don't think that it's now the moment where we can change a lot i think it will just turn out as everybody expects the the right wing of the specially they will be very strong and so on but we have to ask ourselves the bigger questions behind like what exactly happened there how do we have of the misrepresentation and how. can we put more money into this area and why do they also which we must not forget have a really your logic problem and think this is always hard to say because they will

defend themselves and say look we're not all nazis but we have to see that they're all going to eyes right wing extremist groups operating their big networks and they have lots of money they're going in taught to it especially the small towns they have power in those regions and this is something we should not like ignore and say only a few of those. coal miners and other people have social. we're going to close now you know it's one question we began with i'm going to be in office at the end of the year yes under general elections maybe in january and. i think she will still stick they for a while and we shall have to wait and see is the coalition crisis merkel teetering thanks for joining us on the current of course this week but both are now.

sometime in the 26th. my great granddaughter. might move the world like in your life turning it around a half a century. it's really frightening. absolutely why aren't people more concerned. little yellow boots just to be doubly.

sure of. what unites. us what divides. the books tragedies published. what binds the content to cover the by answers and stories of punching above. the spotlight on people. claiming. you. know nothing of the gem. just sometimes out but most are laughing at the mistakes deep into german culture looking at the stereotypes claxton is going to see for the culture that i'm blaming. the young. you didn't see me taking his grandmother day out to eat because it's all about a new i'm a job join me from the german fund d.w. . post fake hair and real story. where i come from

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outstanding shopping and dining office and try our services. biala guest at frankfurt airport cd managed by from. u.s. president donald trump and french president emmanuel mccall all of that world war 2 veterans are ceremonies marking the 75th anniversary of d.-day the 2 leaders used the occasion to reaffirm transatlantic bonds thousands of soldiers died in the allies 944 normandy invasion to liberate europe from nazi dictatorship. a former german nurse has been found guilty of 85.