forests and. the tragic reality behind the explorer. starts july 24th. this is the the leaders live from berlin after weeks of argument and debate the european union is poised to find out whether the block has a new leader members of the european parliament voting on whether to approve a new european commission president germany's on the line is the only candidate that they seek to become the 1st woman to head the executive we will take you live to the parliament in the french city of strasburg for the results.

so welcome to this special coverage of the vote for the european union next commission president you had said governments have nominated to germany's fonda lion she needs a simple majority of any piece to be confirmed in the position the commission is the executive proposing the new laws and implementing decisions the commission president plays a key role in deciding the bloc future and direction. fons alliance nomination has been the controversial anteater blues of brussels bureau chief knocks off one at the european parliament in strasburg and political correspondent simon a young here they're here to talk us through the arguments so welcome both

so let's start with you max hoffman in strasburg i am told that the voting has now finished counting is underway how do you rate on the lines chances. well we just said those boxes going past us here and that's where the fate of the line is so as you said the voting is done now begins the counting so we want to know what those crucial players voted for especially the social democrats and that's why i'm talking to. you who's next to me he's the head of the italian delegation in the social democratic political group a group that was very skeptical of off on the line but has now decided to support or why because we decided to negotiate some program magic political conditions. and i think that the answer where a satisfactory so we got

a lot of what we asked so i think now it is seed used to vote in favor and of course to be very vigilant for the implementation of those commitments so is not the check in black that we are giving but we will be very very much the monday in the next weeks monts if she will be elected as i think she will to have those promises now transform into action because it's important for our citizens what specifically put you over the what convinced you because the italian delegation was quite quick to support will of one that we decided today. we were not satisfied from the hearing that she she she had in our group we are the more commitments on climate on the flexibility into the stability and growth pact so more growth friendly fiscal stance on social pillar including the age of the majors to implement the social pain or if you had to choose one thing what was it that commits you i think politically she has been today very clear that you were not she

was not looking for right wing bows she had dress of the pro european forces politically was very clear and that's important and of course a migration or rural low growth and viral mantra that that's. important points social rights these are very important points for us so tell us will the social democrats will there be a majority within the social democrats that was left on the line because the germans were very adamant in their opposition we respect that position but today was very key had there is a broad majority in the socially social democrats group a 2 to support vote sort of underlying and as i said to keep of course our fight will soon and next phases say no to that to to to to get this commitment transforming the reality roberto going gerri thank you very much for taking some time i know you're very busy today and so that's good news for those that have on the line the social democrats as my guest said a majority of them supports. max and just talk us through the timetable of

tonight's events. well the timetable is the votes have stopped they count now and since they're going to try to get this right it's going to be at least 2 rounds of vote counting we expect this determinant around 730 and then we will know the result if the result is as expected by many you just heard about then she will win seal say a couple of words in the plenary also the president of the european parliament will say a couple of words and then we do expect the press conference. was been very short on her press. the last days didn't want to make any mistakes didn't really talk to the press publicly so this hopefully will change after today. stay with us. simon young you political correspondent lots of people out there say well there is this woman there is this found alive she's been. very much part of the german establishment for some time will take a longer look at her career in just

a moment but 1st of all tell us about that this idea of continuity with the earth sort of on the line that live in no. light to see much continuity between that and the one that brussels will get to know if she gets the nomination she gets the confirmation yeah good question i mean i think i think that the qualities are found a lie and brings in as you say she's very experienced politician she's had various ministerial jobs most recently at the defense ministry that she's she's had since 23 teens so she's lost it a long time in a difficult job that's partly because of her skill i think as an administrator she tried to reform a lot of things about the german military set up with make success it must be said and it's been a very scandal hit job in recent years and so on but the broad line is that she's somebody with sort of stature with an ability to talk to the sorts of different

groups and put forward an agenda of her own i think those are. sort of qualities that you need in this european commission president job which is about organizing administration on the one hand but also bringing different political persuasions together around the table and trying to get some sort of movement out of what is often gridlock in brussels it's getting us off to a nice start on the woman of. dr. so so i was give us a quick sketch of who she is let's take a closer look. all that off underline a long term minister and germany's government not quite a top representative conservative and ambitious is she now stepping out of shadow in just one chancellor in every generation and in mine. at 1st glance merkel and funded line seem quite similar both entered politics rather late and are

liberal conservatives but long terms of service know a medical doctor and mother of 7 it's not a carbon copy of the chancellor. from business and you can obviously if she had 9 eggs or that white difference i'm glad it's my moderating those will find that line is not part of rising many things only actually as i tread on it with a broader use for have been initiated as was i find a nice. team had invited old enough and the line between yet found a line didn't follow me as party leader the chances of becoming chancellor were too narrow she was too polarizing after all so what has she achieved politically. has been made i am a passionate minister for family affairs business and now for defense since merkel became chancellor in 2005 fund and one had a seat at her cabinet table and earned a lot of criticism she angered conservatives with the proposed women's quota for

german businesses as the 1st woman leading the german armed forces she also faced backlash. she has a problem in the german military because she's tackled a lot of issues from ride being extremism in the military to curry new happens of course it's easier for politicians not to deal with is. the not formally assigned to foreign policy funder line travelled the world as defense minister from europe even to china. but what is her take on europe. there are no one to be more european europe needs to take on more responsibility born and raised in brussels from the line is fluent in english and french she's the only candidate the u. member states could agree on to lead the commission because the hard european politics are domestic politics it's totally normal for her to speak with the talent and french people that comes from her childhood in brussels brussels is familiar to

right foot was enough on the line but a woman at the top of the u. a 1st for her and for everyone else. her votes are being counted. for the european commission the president let's go back to hoffman in strasburg mugs we heard her talking to the leader of the italian democrats tell us more about what the lion has problems she was a cop she was a controversial selection initially it was a knife edge now things look to be moving in her direction so what is she offered. the art of that speech was that she pushed different buttons that resonated with their front groups without alienating some of her supporters because if she goes too far to the right then the social democrats as we just talked to them would have said no we can't go along with that and the other way around some of the very important but she pushed was on climate protection that may have even as we're

hearing swayed some of the greens that were very categorical as we can say we will not vote for. also rescue at sea the migration issue at large very important to the social democrats they like that and of course the social pillar of the european union that they want to develop for example a european wide insurance if you lose your job that would have been something that might have swayed some votes among the social democrats all that mixed together with her personal story you know she's she's a woman like that we can't say that often enough she would be the 1st woman at the top of the european commission she also sprinkled in that she had a large family with 7 children probably helps when she talks about family issues and she generally had a very strong speech your own not nervous she was clear she body language was good so overall you can say this worked well for her simon young the.

name popped out of a stew that didn't initially include many detect. the hand of i'm going to machall behind this what role did the german chancellor play and. getting this huge row for sure. on the line is a long time close confidant an ally of machall and clearly when it emerged that the so-called the 2 leading candidates of the 2 biggest party blocs banned from babe and france to man's couldn't get the support of the european parliament another name was needed. and obviously angle americal thought right now is the moment after about 5 decades or more to have a german in the top job of the e.u. and a c.d.u. christian democrat from the same party as merkel suits very well a lot of people have also said of course pointed out that this is part of

a big personnel deal within the european union other big jobs bills have been up for grabs and some people have pointed out that a likely german success somebody seen as the german success against vive men going to the top job at the european central bank that wouldn't have seemed to dangle americal so she said all right we'll have the the french lady christine legarde running the central bank and a german running the commission and that's a nice sort of franco german balance that works for angela merkel and as i say the closeness between these 2 of these 2 women formed a line in merkel will of course strengthen angela merkel's position in europe even in the last years of her chancellor let's pick up one of those points of it with max hoffman there in strasburg this idea of a deal having been done people look at this and see it as potentially

anti-democratic the idea that heads of government got together and said well if it's not it's not it's not it's not him it could be here what about her talk us through give us a flesh out this idea of the balances that have to be struck the countries the politics the genders. well we can also talk numbers here which gives you a sense of the balances as well as enough on the needs 374 votes to have the absolute majority which it takes but her party the european people's party only has 182 votes and she's not even certain to get all those votes because you know you never do there are always some people who are not happy some politicians that are not happy with the direction that their potential candidate is taking now you have the social democrats that have over just over $150.00 seats in the european parliament and you can tell both together are not enough for the absolute majority so this is a 1st this is why it was so complicated to strike that balance it was easier in the

past where you had the so-called grand coalition of the european parliament between the social democrats and between the conservatives but this time you need a 3rd party possible candidates the greens but they said very early on we're not getting one of those positions we don't like the topics we don't like the position of those off on the line so they seem to be out of the game so all the liberals came into the game that is a very interesting group now because you have the old school liberals in it but you also have the people from a man who in my calls french president. new kind of liberals and how they merge together that was unclear but we did hear today from their group leader there will be a large majority very large numbers that will support the law and she managed to do this by staying yes and that was actually one point of criticism rather vague on many points but making it very clear on some points that are that could resonate with all those 3 parties where she stands and one of that is climate protection.

you mentioned the role of the liberals within this way to dating let's have a listen to what some of the liberals have been saying.