tv Quadriga Deutsche Welle June 8, 2019 12:30am-1:00am CEST
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congo security question mark in isolation. not have any cheap but so much more needs to be john and i think people have to be at the constitutional money on mcclatchy and i work at the job. in. a well 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
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but pledged that her government would somehow soldier on critics though are not convinced saying the end is no life 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 coal 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 fact angela merkel now runs a caretaker government with no residual ambition at all that is tragic for germany and tragic for europe indeed also with us is from that's the view from sites 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 weekly veterans of a hall who believes grand coalitions disrupt the traditional party system. and so
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the huge shifts within the electorate. very interesting simon thank you all 3 for being with me here on quadrant of this week i'd like to begin with you cordillera a lot to going on here in berlin of 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 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 the 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 of 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
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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 middle east not much is going to happen when i said you brought buy into all this i'm going to govern until 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 losers because the fact that they have lost a lot of voices 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 are companies the info influential president you're not
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being under as he's the president of the federation of german industries the b.t.r. i 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 that graham coalition addresses do not or no longer to reach a large majority of the futile but the coalition government let me make this very clear has gambled away a lot of trust beat. the coalition government has gone both away a loss of trust that's pretty strong words is this a 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 supposed to both the middle east on to a family owned firms and the larger the list to the docks firms they are very unhappy because they're simply pointing out what everyone knows that the there hasn't been any meaningful domestic reform under merkel ever the the last big
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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 of words 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. business owners business entrepreneurs are very upset because nothing's being done you have been not included. well it was always the big strength of angela merkel being good at reacting being good at balancing that's her kind of
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leadership but now i think we have got at some point that is comparable to the point that her predecessor. was at he. had. we remember maybe it was sick man of europe germany isn't working all these things and 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 climate change is not just about having a price on carbon and having some tax maybe 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 for some sort of an answer of what is of stake here in germany what is going to stake in europe in this crisis. we can see in each country populism rising especially the right wing populism and i think
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that germany now has to be strong show that we can be like a modern working society that can also tackle 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 all 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 may assert their unique selling point has been one person who we've mentioned already. after keeping a low profile in recent months johnson has reemerged and is acting as
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a pillar of strength. we will continue the government's work with all due seriousness. and above all with a great sense of responsibility last december machall handed over responsibility for leading the c.d.u. to under great company she was to continue macros legacy and succeed terrorist 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 live and how they like their 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 but the c.d.c. has yet to come up with a cogent response. the chancellor's current crisis management is a far cry from
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a can do this stands back in 2015 new parliamentary elections on the horizon in germany. lots of 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. why that's a very good question i don't think that she has really lost it i think many people still appreciate this woman but 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 and the questions that now the youth of address for example is where all everything this government did in the past since they are power like 2005 is that they correct the little things. politics yes they may tweak this and that and then. and i think now people just have this bigger questions rising and saying what happened in the past like 10
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years and wet where the big issues going there what is changing so fast and well you're not really dealing with these so the question is that. i'm going to mirco axing effectively as a sort of a parallel german foreign minister on the international stage very visible but at home he's failing to talk over the problems that you have both all 3 been talking about ok well the immediate reason is that she she made herself a lame duck by stepping back when they were took by the way you just mentioned why has she lost her touch as minister just said 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 a pretty suppose to turn thing the battle because. i'm a grad cum combo and she's 10 they're very close to i mean to stick with the metaphor to actually dropping the battle well i think this is a problem that we have to start talking about with i think that come combo of a great long german name a.k.k.
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but while you're talking about merkel keep 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. under 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 2 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 now groom or 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 she had a lot of learning to do to do as well and so she knows a k.-k. has to do that has
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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 let her learn that you have it because you know bew breaking a law. saying that she's she's still pretty much on course but at the top of the show we had you saying i'm going to the helm if i can take a government with no residual ambition i was always talking to her medicare 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 migration but except for the 2 decisions on one on 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 cold generated power is are they going to talk about that and then they have the big one
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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 coat and 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 what could you explain it's a little bit for our viewers as well this traditional system is probably history now the latest european election results have shown that so to this nearly and in. post-war germany west germany and complete many we had 2 camps center right center left and 2 big parties one to the right the christian democrats and one minute the ball to the left the social democrats. and the idea was that these 2 parties always could to get a majority and that they had different concepts and if one government was not
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delivering anymore the other could take over and having these 3 grand coalitions with angela merkel 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 we get a choice who also turn to the right and was doing something his own electorate wasn't really saying was a good thing so these are 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 parties being swept aside to a certain extent from that's a by by tectonic changes there and among those there's
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a lot of talk about another tectonic change in german politics suddenly the social media people are 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 though 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 are 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
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something experienced in it it's not part of their language. when woman talk about 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 polity in german politics according to that one poll what does not come from that under comes that is the direct counter to the rise the preceding rise of the alternative for germany because what's happened is you have this old left right spectrum that cordle are describing through most of post-war west german history but then a new spectrum as in other countries in the entire western from france australia everywhere which is open closed in the alternative for germany especially after the big migration year 2015. what's the took the clear stance for a closed society especially towards foreigners and migrants now of all the other
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parties the greens are the ones who took the clearer stance for an open society and so you saw that the the people who wanted to clear message of closed went for the a of d. but it stuck nationally at about 13 percent and higher in the east but the people who were who definitely wanted 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 one . of the policy of 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're 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
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party anymore and they are strong. with climate change. 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 tested these new ideas and also. talking about climate change it's not that they 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 for the green party. especially with. the. results germany's major
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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 cities including some. protection is a major priority. friendly traffic. is being phased out to. many in the affected areas considered a big mistake. to them environmental protection is a luxury only rich city folk can afford. can bring the country together. professor who can bring the country together. i don't think the greens are particularly failing. attracting this.
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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 . completely different 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 the discourse because it's all about protecting the poor ones for example those who are for gotten those who need
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more a presentation all of these questions are inherently also green issues. you have been quoted as saying that the east and west are 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 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 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 in other apartments it's difficult to have a climate friendly policy because it's more more expensive for the people there it's hard to get this idea across that they will fill profit from it so and people they feel maybe
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a 2nd time left behind or not really. taken seriously like in the 1900 like every family that 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 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 as one other aspect i think in the east the eastern 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
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this the eastern us didn't have nuts 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. but i think the problem is not then that they rely on the car or it out 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 all 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 too to not just let them stick with the if the
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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 that is now the moment where we can change a lot i think it would just turn out as everybody expects the the right wing a of d. specially they will be very strong and so on but we have to ask ourselves the bigger questions like what exactly happened how do we help of the misrepresentation and how can we put more money into this area and why do they also wish we must not forget have a really large problem and think this is always hard to say because they will
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defend themselves and say look we're not on nazis but we have to we see that there are organized right wing extremist groups operating there big networks and they have lots of money they're going in told to especially the small towns they have power in those regions and this is something we should not like ignore and say there are only a few of those. coal miners and other people who. are close now you know that's one question with. general elections maybe in january. i think that they for a while and we shall have to wait and see is the. coalition crisis medical team. thanks for joining us on kind of. talk about it for now.
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to bake plaster. we could have 5 already built and sent the size to the volatility of the lake. but left we're just learning this is a new field. mexico is deploying more security forces to its border with guatemala in a new attempt to stem the flow of migrants heading to the u.s. it's part of mexico's efforts to ward off new u.s. import tariffs washington says at one point was a 5 percent tax on mexican goods on monday if no deal on illegal migration is.
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