berlin. germany's christian democrats have a new party leader. cbu members vote for frederick matz to take the helm of the conservative opposition after their worst ever election defeat. many want him to steal the party back to the right after angela merkel's centrist course. plus, british prime minister boris johnson under mounting pressure after a series of

scandals. now his party has suffered a humiliating defeat. and recovery on the palma as the spanish islands longest volcano eruption finally shows signs of ending. ♪ i'm phil gayle, welcome to the program. germany's opposition christian democrats, the party of former chancellor angela merkel, have elected frederick mertz as their next leader. he beat two other contenders with an outright majority in the first round of a members vote. his supporters hope you can steer the party more towards the right after the cdu's worst ever national election result. >> its third time lucky for frederick mertz. twice before, he has launched a

bid to become leader of the christian democrats. reacting to the vote, frederick mertz promised to unite the party. >> i know what lies ahead for all of us and what this means for me personally. i accept the nomination of our members and i'm looking forward to working well with absolutely everyone. mertz was first elected to the bundestag in 1994, and later became parliamentary leader of the cdu. but he was squeezed out by angela merkel in 2002. mertz switched to a lucrative career in banking and did not return to the political fray until 2018, as there were signs the era of chancellor merkel was coming to an end. he ran but lost in 2018, and

again in 2020. but after the party's poor result at this year's general election, many in the cdu clearly felt big it was -- clearly felt it was time for mertz's brand of tough talk. >> let me say, the cdu, this party has been in the state of emergency for three years and this must not be repeated. even within his >> party, some have questioned >> some of his motives, saying he is driven mostly by personal ambition. that ambition has now given him the cdu's top job, enabling mertz to be the face of conservative opposition to the government of olaf scholz. phil: let's find out more about this man with albrecht fong luker, a political scientist here in berlin. welcome to dw. tell us more about frederick

mertz. how will hee different to angela merkel? >> i think he will be very, if not to say totally different from anga merkel, because he is from character totally different. he is very aggressive, not only from the right, but has a very strong rhetoric. merkel was very moderate. she was smooth all the time and now, there will be a very op aggressive -- very aggressive opposition leader, which is not a bad thing. they are now the opposition and you have to be aggressive, you must be strong, and that's what frederick mertz is. phil: he is 66 years old, long been a significant figure in the party. are we looking at a new era for the cdu, or a return to the past? >> it's absolutely a new era, because it is now opposition time. that's different to the merkel era. we have 16 years of angela merkel, strong leadership for a

long time, the last year, not as strong, b if she had been a candidate, she would have won another time and olaf scholz would not have been chancellor. that's another reason the era is another one. i don't think she will return to the past. mertz cannot be reactionary. he must win the social positions of the cdu, going more to the middle. that's what he is doing. he will on one side, create controversy, be strong and aggressive as an opposition leader, but will also try to hold the middle. that's important for the cdu, because that's not and never has been a right party. phil: you've recently described frederick mertz as a risk for the cdu. why? >> that's the irony of the thing. i said he is a risk, because two years before he run, this is the third time he wanted to from the party of the cdu, but at that

time he also wanted to become chancellor. that's always a position where many people, i think the majority wants a moderate person . that's the successful thing of angela merkel and the successful reason for olaf scholz. he is an essentially merkel 2.0. a masculine merkel. he is but mertz is strong, he is aggressive, and can hold well positions. he might be able to attack we ak olaf scholz with rhetoric. he arrived at the right time, wh he was going for chancell -- he was not the right man. now if it his his time, i am not sure. now, i think he will become a

very strong opposition leader. phil: that is clear. thank you much. to the coronavirus pandemic and britain is reporting more than 93,000 new infections, that's the country's third record total in a row. sharp increases being attributed to the fast spreading omicron variant. germany, meanwhile, is bracing for an omicron surge. the health minister has warned that the latest coronavirus variant will pose a major challenge to hospitals, intensive care units, and society as a whole. >> i am assuming there will be a massive fifth wave. in close communication with the colleagues in england, both in politics and in science. we have coordinated with each other, and these colleagues say that what they are seeing there is worse than anything they have seen before during the pandemic. this means that we must prepare

ourselves for a challenge unlike any we've had before. phil: let's look at that challenge with a journalist in molecular biology. he joins us from berlin. welcome to dw. let's start with the omicron threat, as it were. germany's rates have dropped to their lowest level in more than a month. is the health minister right to sound so alarmed about omicron? >> yes. i think in this particular situation, he is certainly right. while inction rates right now are lower than they have been for a month, remembe that they are sll, they mark the highest we have seen in the last two years. we still have hospitals that are sometimes overwhelmed, sometimes close to being overwhelmed, and now on top of this -- all of this is delta, right? on top of this, we get omicron, and it is spreading faster than anything we have seen before in

this pandemic. even if a lot of people are reinfected and have fairly mild disease, something that spreads this fast is always going to end up creating more and more cases then you can deal with. so this coming, adding a situation where we already have crowded hospitals is going to be a real problem. i think he is right to call that out. phil: he has also talked about the possibility of a fourth booster jab next year, tweaked to deal with omicron. is this our future now, injections every six months or so as vaccine efficacy wanes and new variants spring up? >> personally, i don't think so. one reason for that, what we are finding out with omicron now, this is the first variant that can reinfected people who have been infected or vaccinated. we are going to find out how well that last line of defense

holds. how well we are protect from severe disease. at the moment, it looks like the risk of being systematically infected is very big again, even if you had two shots of pfizer, for instance. it's lower if you have had a booster. i think probably, the proction from severe disease is quite strong. that's the most important thing. also, we will see in the future next-genation'of vaccines coming that hopefully create broade immunity that protect against other variants as well. i don't think we will be in for a new shot everyix months. i think we have to bearef abouhoardinghese vaccines in anticipation of at, because there are a lot of people around the world who have not gotten a first shot. phil: so what did we learn from omicron hotspots like south africa and the united kingdom? are there lessons to be learned from their experience? >> yes. i think at this point, we can draw a few lessons.

the first is, this seads incredibly fast. we have seen that in denmark, norway, in the u.k. it creates its own problems and weave to kp that in mind. that also has a higher risk of rain affecting -- re-infecting people who have been affecte before and affects people who have two doses of pfizer, for instance, but haven't had a booster. we know these things are important and have seen a lot of super spreading events again already, so it does help to slow this dowby reducing contact a little bit or creating fewer situations whe a lot of people can be infected at once. all of these things, i think we now have to take forward and try to prepare. we don't have an a lot of tim, givehow fast this spreads, but january, we are going to be deep in an omicr wave, and what happens then we'll probably be crucial. phil: thank you for that.

as all this is going on, there are demonstrations against coronavirus restrictions here in germany that are becoming increasingly violent, with many ending in clashes with police and threats against politicians over the recent days. authorities have long warned of right wing extremist exploiting the situation to push their own agenda. the officials who spent their lives fighting extremism say the threat has always been there, it is only now becoming more visible. correspondent: she knows exactly where to find the people she has been fighting for decades. here resides the neo-nazi political party, the third path. its members incite hatred against foreigners and whoever thinks differently. the party has been classified as extremist and anti-constitutional. >> i would love it if they would go away. i want them out of our town.

right-wing radicalism is not welcome here. it simply has nothing at all to do with democracy. correspondent: but the small, radical neo-nazi party is established in the former east germany. third path members were elected to the town council, so they are able to shape political life. the chairwoman of an association who is committed to finding the dangers of the extreme right. because of this, she often receives threats. >> you come home from shopping and know someone who is very close to the third path lives in the flat under you. you are attacked in the stairwell, with i'm going to kill you and i'm going to shoot you. correspondent: the situation has worsened due to the covid pandemic. some people are dissatisfied with the governments pandemic mitigation measures, saying they are too strict. the radical right takes advantage of this dissatisfaction. several extremist groups agitating people and calling for

demonstrations. protests like these are happening in many places in germany. in the eastern state of saxony, they are especially aggressive. police arrested one man after a raid, he and friends reportedly discussed online killing a saxony state minister. others marched with torches around the house of the state minister of health. such demonstrators are minority here, but they are loud and aggressive. >> their tone has become more radicalized and they are not hiding it anymore. they openly threatened to kill politicians. that kind of thing never happened before, not like this. correspondent: she visits various parts of the city and educates people about the danger posed by the radical right. quitting is not an option. she does not want to let her hometown fall prey to extremist forces. >> i am the kind of person who

speaks up and lets people know what she thinks. i was always very vocal. this isn't new. i have to speak out for what i believe in. correspondent: and that's what she will keep doing, standing up against dangerous extremism. phil: lots of these extremists organize online using the messenger service telegram, causing german authorities problems. we welcome our guest. let's start with the basics. how does the communication on telegram actually work? >> telegram is really easy to use, and i think it's onof the reasons why it has become so successful. you download it to your phone, you open it, it looks like any other messaging app, like whatsapp, for example, but there are some key differences. on telegram, you have groups where up to 200,000 people, users can talk to each other. they are also what's called

channels, where only a few people can talk to each other or post things, but there are no limits as to how many people can join those channels. they are completely public. you can search for them and join them. that, along with the siz of groups and channels, is when many people say -- and i personally read -- here, telegram acts as a platform rather than a messenger. that's why it should abide by stricter rules that apply to social media platforms. the reality is that telegram doesn't. phil: we know facebook and twitter act against extremists, so what's causing telegram to not act in the same way? >> the most important difference to facook or meta, as facebook remanded -- rebranded itself, or twitter, is that telegram

doesn't cooperate with the government. that is in its dna, if you will. it was founded beyond the reach of government censorship. to be fair, thi has helped activists and protesters around the world to organize themselves, including in authoritarian regimes, but it has also attracted conspiracy theorists and terrorists, as we have seen in germany. it shows how hard this hands-off approach makes it for authorities to fight extremism on that platform. we know german authorities have tried to contact telegram to get help with tracking extremist content. after that didn't happen, they threatened to issue fines of over 50 million euros. but from everything we know, telegram has simply ignored their letters and emails. since the app has its headquarters in dubai, there is only so much authorities can do. phil: briefly then, what is

berlin's plan? what are they going to do about this? >> germany's new interior minister has announced getting tougher on telegram. but what e they going to do? it seems likely that her government will sort of titan germany's online hate speech law. but to enforce the law online, you depend on the platform and its willingness to coopera. so far, telegram seems unwilling to cooperate with the german government. phil: our chief technology correspondent. let's take a look at a few more stories making news around the world. russia has revealed details of the requirements it says must be fulfilled to reach a security deal with the u.s. and nato. the demands were delivered to the u.s. this week. among them are the denial of ukraine's aspirations to join nato and a de-escalation

and military deployments. the human rights council has set up an independent investigation into abuses in the ethiopian conflicts. between 5000 and 7000 people are said to be still in detention. demonstrators have gathered in jordans capital to protest against changes to the constitution. the king is a key western ally, and already has considerable powers. and belarus and opposition leader has been awarded the 2022 charlemagne prize on behalf of their efforts on rita men democracy. the prize is awarded annually by germany.

back to the u.k., where voters have dealt a blow to the prime minister boris johnson. his conservative party suffered a crushing defeat, losing a parliamentary seat they had held for 200 years. the loss to the smaller dip role -- liberal democrats was seen as a referendum on prime minister johnson's leadership. >> they have said boris johnson, the party is over. correspondent: it was an electoral upset that reverberated through the whole country. nearly two centuries of conservative domination ended after a vote of no-confidence on boris johnson. he took personal responsibility for the defeat. >> i hear what the voters are saying in northrup shire, and with all humility, i have to accept that verdict. correspondent: the election was triggered when it's conservative

incumbents resigned after breaking lobbying rules. johnson had tried to change those rules in parliament to prevent the resignation, a move that caused public outrage. it's not the only scandal to turn voters against the prime minister and the conservative party. the opposition has been quick to exploit his missteps, with his popularity waning, the prime minister also faced the risk of being forced out by his own party, which has historically quick in turn -- to turn on leaders it feels will not bring victory. phil: it's been almost three months since la palma's volcano has become active. as the eruption continued, more and more areas of the path was

destroyed. businesses and homes, including banana plantations, were destroyed. but there is hope the disaster may be coming to an end. >> these bananas are up to their necks in from the nearby volcano. the greenhouse meant to protect them collapsed. now, farmers have been given a moment of rest bite. the volcano has been quiet for the third day in a row. >> we are now digging holes to clear out the ash. to start dismantling the greenhouse that fell down. it's a lot of ash that has fallen here, quite extensive. i don't even know the words to know how much. it's alive. this is over 20 centimeters of ash.

correspondent: this has been the longest eruption in the volcano's history, but it is finally showing signs of calming down. seismic activity has been wek, with no lava flow and sporadic gushes of smoke. >> it's a great feeling that the volcano is silent for a third day. for me, it's a joy and a message to the island to keep going, that this is just beginning as together, we can get up again quickly. correspondent: volcanic activity has to stay this quiet for 10 days. only then can scientists say the eruption is officially over. only then can residents begin to rebuild what was lost without fearing the volcano. phil: more news from around the world. in the czech republic, the president has sworn in a new

coalition government. the five party alliance will be led by the new prime minister. the swearing in of his new cabinet ends the government of populist billionaire andrea babich. 12 people have been killed by the philippines's strongest typhoon this year. more than 300,000 people have fled their homes as the storm batters parts of the archipelago. and marking 10 years in power with a memorial servic to his father, king john il. kim jong-un has overseen further isolation of north korea, as well as extensive missile tests. the beijing winter olympic s -- olympics are less then

-- months away,. >> this event includes nine disciplines under two main categories and will last until the end of december. 200 schools in beijing offer winter sports classes, and two point one million students are birds debating in winter sport. >> i find another world on ice, where i can skate happily. i am really happy, schools in other chinese cities have also developed their winter sports programs. in shandon providence, you can take free classes to experience winter sports. of until now, nearly 10,000 students hav participated. >> since 2019, we established an

education system that cultivates talents with free calendar -- free talent and an ice hockey league. children have more than our for extracurricular sports. >> unit schools withhough -- in schools with no --. >> rollerskating is not so different that ice skating, so we learned that instead. students can still learn skiing and skating. correspondent: the aim is to facilitate the development of young athletes while the sports enjoy increased popularity in the wake of the winter olympics. phil: the 29-year-old midfielder

has not played since suffering a cardiac arrest during denmark's game against finla. the italian health regulations prohibit him playing with the device, but you could -- he could continue his career in another country. germany's conservative christian democrats have chosen friedrich merz as their new party leader. he won an outright majority in the vote. many hope you will steer the party further to the right, following the worst general election defeat. i will be back in just a moment with "the day," taking a look at the big stories of the day. see you then.

y catherine nicholson, france 24 and france .4.com. ♪ >> france announces new measures to combat the alarming spread of the omicron variant including bringing forward booster shots and -- >> united kingdom records its highest number ever of daily covid infections. research fueled by the rapid spread of omicron. they appeal for urgent aid as a struggle to fight the coronavirus outbreak.