kudos to you. for the fierce flavors of the exotic crazy. challenge for you old to read him and the review. from street food the 5 star restaurant tasty taipei starts september 1st w. . germans are bracing for a political earthquake this coming weekend as 2 states in the eastern part of the country hold regional elections that could see right wing populist surpassed mainstream parties to become the strongest political force in one or both states a dramatic surge in support for the alternative for germany party known by its

german initials a.f.d. with send shock waves that could up end politics not only in regional capitals but also in berlin nearly 30 years after the fall of the wall it looks as though east and west could be growing further apart rather than together. why that is is our topic this week here on quadriga and here are our guests. works for she go online she says german society is just beginning to deal with the disappointment and trauma eastern germans experienced after the fall of the wall many people felt their experiences had been ignored the a.f.p. feeds off these feelings. and it's a pleasure to welcome my colleague michele knight she's chief political editor here at t w she says most of all these elections are about what options will be on the table when i think of america's final coalition government leaves office and we're very pleased to have them back on the show he's an author and commentator for the

daily newspaper. he says a generation after the end of nazi. germany experienced an anti-war for a terry a revolt a generation after the end of communism east germany is experiencing for terry and . by. so let me ask all of you and i'll start with you and if i may to police explain for us the importance of these elections because we're talking about 2 states brandenburg and saxony that in fact have just over $6000000.00 residents all together that's well less than 10 percent of the german population so why all the attention. because germany is a federal state so the state just like the united states. so these states may be or even a small state on a big state they have a voice in the upper house of the german parliament the burden is hard so it's important simply for constitutional reasons the 2nd is that if the

becomes the biggest party in one or both states they may force the other parties into a kind of horrible hold coalition with. the greens the anyone who isn't. mixing together in order not to form a coalition with with the f.t. with the far right and this is this would be terrible for democracy would be would be awful if if this would lead to a sort of stampede of democratic parties so anything but a f.t. . it doesn't it only feeds their pride and would lead i think there. people who wonder why should i vote for or not vote in other regional actions rather to vote for them in order to teach the other pond is a lesson and show it can you just pick up on that your opening statement said that in effect the shock waves of a surge of support for the f.t. would be felt in the capital berlin as well as in the states themselves why is that

is this kind of a litmus test for the 2 mainstream parties the conservatives and the social democrats in a way it's a fast forward of the decline that we've already seen in the past general elections that may well be on the horizon particularly for calls junior coalition partner the social democrat s.p.d. who have been having waves of nervous breakdowns politically over the past couple of years and who are very much struggling to actually somehow stay within this coalition if they get another slap in the face of the ballot box and that could well set off a chain of events that would see them hackles self declared final term in office come to an hold so that's what's at stake nationally let's just spell that out the s.p.d. has been governing in fact ever since reunification as the leading party in brandenburg here telling us if they lose that status this coming sunday we could well see what

them pull out of the federal coalition early elections i don't think one single event will be enough i think it's just as interesting to see whether they actually how far below the double digits they go in the neighboring state of saxony because if they in the worst case scenario fail the 5 percent threshold and that would be complete catastrophe is such a loss of political status and we're ready seeing what essentially is a political standoff between the s.p.d. now interim leadership they're currently in a leadership struggle seeing or was 2 dozen candidates going for that top role. so that could see a standoff between kind of the established leadership on the grassroots of the posse and we're really seeing a posse struggling to keep itself together that in the coalition government now let's go back to these 2 states themselves. and we've just heard this is

a litmus test in a sense for the federal government is it also a litmus test for reunification 30 years after the fact. i would say that i think reunification there has been so much migration within germany i think almost 5000000 people. they moved from western germany to eastern germany and vice versa obviously too so i do think that our country is united but there are still many issues in which you can actually see that eastern germany is still as far along as western germany. in regards to economical status financial security all of these things and obviously also politically the f.d.a. is much stronger in these in these states than it is in western western states but i have to say i don't agree with you on that it would be the. a catastrophe for democracy if the left party and its city you went into a coalesce in

a book i think it's actually quite interesting. catastrophes for democracy of not interesting that there is none the less. what you need a new yorker see is is. a balance between right and left and and if you have the seed you really forming a coalition with what used to be the communist governmental body in east germany just to prevent. to avoid going into a collision with a de then i think democracy really is beings stood on its head and it. interesting though it might be to see it's within its head that's not something something i'd like it would also be hypocritical because quite frankly the a of d. is not worse than the left party of both pseudo toted totalitarian. democratic anti west anti nato anti european parties and i don't agree with me i

just come back to the question of the unification and the success of reunification validate her and it has said that in many ways east and west absolutely have integrated and converge but michel if we look at surveys recent surveys we see significant divergences in political attitudes for example one survey shows a great deal less support for democracy itself in the east than in the west i think it's 42 percent of east germans said they're enthusiastic about democracy compared with 75 percent of west germans too what do you attribute that kind of divergence and in fact less than half support in east germany for the system itself well essentially because in the eastern part democracy didn't deliver the goods it delivered euros it's a divots infrastructure but it's a coup. tens of thousands of dogs and i think it's safe to say that for east

germans who saw this complete turnaround of their political system in $89.00 the price was a very high $1.00 to pay and there's a lot of debate in germany about these broken biographies of people who never really found their feet professionally again. this essential breach of what they thought was kind of a path towards within safe jobs i mean that's one thing that you still need to deliver. right now the government is discussing and that will probably go ahead a package worth $40000000000.00 euros to pay for restructuring of industry related to cold most of that will be in these eastern states just to put it into perspective the finance minister reckons that a crisis the size of the financial crisis would cost germany $50000000000.00 euro so that there's a lot of money that is now sent east but the experience of people in the east is

that money didn't really solve the structural problems i want to come back to the economics in just a moment but. looking at your opening statement talking about an authoritarian revolt say a little bit if you would about political attitudes in the east what did you mean by that and does that mean you see this far right party the a.f.d. as a north or a terry in party. yes i'd like to go to court you said because to say that democracy didn't deliver is simply wrong of course we delivered we live democracy itself we delivered freedom of speech we delivered freedom of movement we delivered freedom of expression we delivered a party democracy apart which works as proved by the fact that the f.t. and the old left are allowed to take part in parliamentary elections the whole point if i make my if i say oh i'm for democracy as long as i'm as as i'm

ok as long as the as as as the economy is ok then i'm not a democrat and that's the trouble with that with the germans generally in 933 when when in 13233 when economy went downhill the americans voted franklin d. roosevelt and the germans were voted hitler and now after. from 33 to 89. east germany was under. the under fascist and communist rule they didn't know anything about democracy they never learned about democracy they weren't taught about democracy and now they're revolting against democracy and it's the old men who never bothered who never question themselves who who. in fact agree with the system would be their peace with the system now they found another outlet for their horrible anti democratic attitudes it's just a terrible terrible thing we were much too lenient on them after reunification but

i have you actually that's exactly the point this is the thing that sermons resent if you travel to saxony to them democracy didn't deliver on their expectations of what they want the real thing promised and the last thing they want right now from politicians is to be elected on how democratic they are and whether their opinion is valid or not and this is exactly what leads to such broad support. for the far right whether you agree with it or not it's a phantom phenomenon and it's that i think that they do it they want their experiences to be validated they want these broken biographies as you call them to be to be seen by the mainstream of dermont and mainstream media to just be part of germany and be seen as like part of it and not the. we're sort of cast off fly over country but i just want to ask one thing

about a point that is often asserted in connection with political attitudes and support for the f.t. namely the idea that it reflects the communist area era socialization of order germans and even a kind of nostalgia for an easier time do you think that's true yeah definitely and i also think that germans weren't good democrats in the fifty's they weren't good democrats in the sixty's they had the economic wonder that vets have to wonder and that's how that went on until the seventy's and so that's how they became democrats because the u.s. forced it upon them and then they had a good good experience with demarc democracy so it's stuck sort of you know to put it in a nutshell but and that didn't and that didn't happen in eastern germany obviously they got all this money they got all this restructuring of infrastructure of of

streets and so forth but they didn't have the experience and they did they were the creators of this well they won whether well yeah but but i think that that's part of the problem we're going to is that in the race and they have a right to let me just make the cut here because we do have a little report that will allow us to dig a bit deeper on the economic aspects of unification and perhaps many remember during the election campaign that directly followed the fall of the berlin wall then chancellor helmut kohl promised east germans that they would see their region blossom now unemployment has fallen dramatically since the ninety's wages and salaries are rising and many of the region cities are booming yet ongoing dissatisfaction very much is driving support for right wing populism. november 9th 1989 the berlin wall comes down and the iron curtain. barely 11 months later germany is reunified. with the christian landscapes the

leaders promised haven't materialized instead eastern german industry has been languishing more than a 1000000 eastern germans are out of work. western germany still dominates the economy not a single listed corporation is based in the east. in 2015 the refugee crisis brings feelings of discontent in the east to critical matters. increasingly migrants are seen as competitors for both jobs and social benefits. 2000000000 euros of investment are helping the east to catch up with the rest but at around 70 percent unemployment is still above the average in the west far eastern germans 2nd class citizens. let me put that question to michel there are eastern german 2nd class citizens a question that masses when individuals go into

a polling booth is whether they feel that they are 2nd class citizens and saxony is the economically most successful eastern state and that's where the a if t. is likely to come out and potentially strongest policy that's where the c.d.u. is now they're about there's a margin of 56 percent seaview is ahead they're getting a bit more relaxed about it but whether there's a real race between i'm going to michael see do you posse region on the on the far right a 50 so many feel 2nd class it's a generational question very much as well but if you look at a map of how much disposable income there is and you can still quite clearly see where the wall stood between east and west germany and that is where this entire part of the. country locks behind that also can't put down a payment for their kids in central beilin as many west germans do and this has an

impact on how people feel in the east and it's a very emotive election campaign that's for sure ellen i'm sure that many of our viewers and certainly all of us here will remember that famous bill clinton quote from one of his own election campaigns when he said it's the economy stupid meaning it always comes down to the pocketbook now here's another paradox in surveys east germans express levels of personal economic satisfaction pretty much comparable with those in the west so what's going on here is this 2nd class feeling about something other than economics it's the economy stupid is a stupid phrase and should have known that. people vote but let's not go into that. it's the demography stupid look during before the war went up in 161 the educated people the doctors the university professors engineers they all left the country with their potential of spring then between 61 and the wall coming

down 18 and anyone who was courageous enough to foot strong enough about democracy to leave chanced it since 1800 people have seen chances in the west and gone there you have a brain drain a drain of people who feel for democracy with the civic spirit courage and what's left quite frankly they may be 1st class citizens as far as their rights a concern but no yes they are a negative selection of the german population let's face it that's stupider than the others and that's why more of them are voting for stupid policies so i don't i don't think that's true and i also know i'm going to be living there in the past few years that i've actually been migration back to eastern germany and at that. growing well yes because well because they need people don't they who are not so stupid we have also been there not allowing immigration in weakening this huge influx of people with the get up and go spirit from syria from africa through this

and then we don't want them because that they don't they want to stew in their own juice and they feel happy like that they're like little englanders they're like the trump supporters the people who are a negative so that there's going to have to be a demographic solution to this because thank goodness. some young people are going back to these and maybe they have. a better view of things let me just let me just ask you this certainly there has been massive deep population in some areas of the east and a number of surveys show a correlation between support for the far right and areas where do population has occurred and that is not confined to germany alone we're seeing a similar phenomenon in the u.s. and other places where there is increasing support for the right wing but here's another paradox for me in precisely the same areas there is a great deal of resentment against migration when in fact those areas theoretically need immigration more than any other places in the country valerie how would you

explain that i'm stuck but i don't understand it either i and i also don't understand the inherent racism that that is privy to most of these places so i feel like i really don't understand that also because. the eastern german. you'd think a lot of them understand hell the west helped eastern germany after the fall of the wall so maybe they could be more open to migration but that is clearly not the case i think it's you know studies have shown that if you don't have migration you're more critical to it and eastern germany didn't have migration and that from the socialistic brother countries. those were those were only a few and they were very much kept separate from the public so they weren't even allowed to really interact so there was never any basis of sort of understanding of

multiculturalism i think that's a big part michaud tell us a little bit about the role of the a.f.p. in connection with. anti migration sentiment in fact it's become an absolute signature issue for the a.f.p. what's driving that all because it's clearly resonated with voters on the opinion polls. being an anti euro party it then took a turn to the right and now to the very far right in parts and it was almost vanishing from the political scene when 2015 came around what became known as the migration crisis in germany you can video follow that line quite easily and they foster and if do you will admit so an individual conversations that that is the issue that made the big migration there. they've toned down the rhetoric to a certain degree because they discovered the opportunity of saying we are the real

people picking up on slogans of those protests in 1989 and they are giving people a voice who feel that they couldn't be openly against foreigners and they couldn't open the be racist and that's certainly something whether the public debate in germany has a take. the. so the f.t. allan instrumental izing anti foreigner sentiment. for the sake of the issue itself or for the sake of political power and perhaps are so driving opposition to the so-called elite in berlin well you'd have to ask them wouldn't you. i mean i know some people like francis alex and the garland who is almost a friend of mine he's not an inherent racist but he uses it right on the other hand what's his name. in interior india he is

a racist through and through so and garlands working with them together in the same party i mean. look again people the found founder of the social democratic party said and to some it is and is the socialism of the stupid guys and racism of all kinds is the socialism the stupid guys right it's pointing down to other people who are even below me in social status and declaring war on them and this is stupid right and and so an apology which appeals to stupid sentiment and gets 20 percent obviously thinks this is what if he thinks the 20 percent of the people in the east is stupid and if they get the election results then they'll be proved right but it's up to these germans to prove them wrong not up to our city here in the studio pontificating but what does that make alexander gulen and then he let me say if not already that makes him a horrible opportunistic. person who's using that. to get his own back on the american who's never he's never by the way he's german there are.

true also there's a lot of innovation in the east i really don't want to let that stand the germans are more stupid than the western germans i don't think that's true of a high proportion of stupid people well there is the demography is different a lot of a lot of people who start chance of left they left that's what you said and and so there is there is this obviously and the ninety's were really hard and there were lots of nazis that weren't addressed in the in the g.d.r. and so there are all these issues and there cumulating to what we're now seeing let me just ask you this because we're almost out of time and i'd like to at least briefly hear from all of you should the far right in fact make significant gains in the elections on sunday what do governments at both regional and federal level need to be doing to stop this trend and i'm going to have to ask for the briefest of possible answers well they are

a democratic party they need to be demystified by being seen what they are and that might see them in a regional government somewhere in the near future but they are no when you have being in power in central government i would parties not to change the rules to avoid them that's also part of democracy thank you own kind of a sad agree certainly never happened a lot of time for valerie. and about 30. well i think i do think that it's important that they don't they think don't get in power even in fact they are a bunch of books and i think that. the democratic party should have a little more faith in society in themselves and. i very much hope that we're going to decline over the next couple of months and years thank you. much to all of you for being with us today and thanks to you out there for tuning in and hope to see yourself.

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this line. this music theory or something. to make you feel it coming. and does this take your heart rates. just come to the right place.

right. time to minutes w. . it's all happening good show for the afghani. door linked to news from africa and the world. your link to exceptional stories and discussions hello and welcome to student news actually program night from born in germany from a use of easy now i would say d. debit close the traffic come join us on facebook at d w africa. the worst rising people fight for some companies out of luck when there's a flood water comes up to your waist going to close fast and everyone but. the lack of water is equally dangerous. can't keep people non-self so they

can plant crops and find food system. floods and droughts will climate change become the main driver of mass migration you can write any apocalyptic scenario if you want and probably most of. the climate exodus starts september 5th on d w. much i'm being born as. a calm prude but since. you want to look at those schools. you want to be loose but on allowed to. when you're sick the doctors know when you fall in love they won't mind you don't have children for fear they'll be invisible to. know. when you die there's no. just. every 10 minutes.

someone is a. 10000000 people in the world the stakes they have no nationality and home made up alone and. that everyone has the right. everyone has the right to say. pro-democracy activists in hong kong say they'll continue their demonstrations despite a wave of arrests protest leaders joshua wan and agnes chalo were among those detained and later released on bail while 30 is intensifying a crackdown have banned a mass rally planned for the.