but. it was. kind of a. sign of this yes. she refused. to. wear the blue. it's just a good area for immigrants it's. never really know for sure but this has been. enough but when i started no i. did.

not say german chancellor angela merkel looks all set to win another mandates in the upcoming election. for the right to the fourth term be asked smoots as it loops and what will this vote mean for europe evans to your launch today especially in german diplomat and former ambassador to russia is my guest today. amidst the rise of populist politics the margins of euro skepticism from both right and left than the voter fatigue with established candidates instruments turned to take center stage for election season with chancellor angela merkel expected to secure a fourth are in office how will the choice of europe's most powerful nation influence the e.u. with a chance to set out to reform the block. period and how radical of a shake up this election will be for the union. dr. adman's to york phone students

welcome to the show it's good to have you with us one more time so who are the germans choosing here the t.v. debate between the leading candidates showed that there isn't much difference between social democrats march and shoals and christian democrats incumbent chelsea or a miracle well i mean as far as the soundings in the. present . as one consider presently see there's quite a difference between the two parties because if the christian democrats of chancellor merkel are leading by about thirty six point five percent where as the source for democrats of mr schultz trailing with about twenty two percent in opinion polls presently. so martin shilts wants to attack america's record on policy choices but since they're actually close on policy why would the people choose him over her well they obviously are not going to do it because i mean as i

said in the opinion polls the social democrats trailing and the efforts of mr schultz to catch up with the christian democrats which at the beginning of the year seem to be a promise and promising have failed and i think they have failed because of. well a mistake mr schultz made at the very beginning when there were. state elections in the small state of the saarland next to the french border in the west where he was venturing the idea of having a coalition it was the leftist party and the greens and the people were simply not ready for such a queer lucian and he lost much more than he expected and i think that carried on into the elections in the next state in the biggest state of our federal republic that is an author i breastfed where they lost again and they lost one small in the elections of the northern state of flux or coached and so the effort

of mr schultz to catch up with the christian democrats have failed and then he was knocking for any kind of a new approach where he could catch up and apparently he hasn't done so the chancellor won the first t.v. debate but refused to take part in a second why well i think. the chancellor. thought it was necessary to at least be ready to accept one such debate but she wasn't on the other hand i mean she is the leading politician in the country and in the ways she could dictate the rules and dictating the routes meant that she would expose herself once to this but not for a second time. merkel's party isn't poised to win an outright majority to rate her choice of coalition partner will influence her policy who do you think it will

be. well presently there are only two options for a coalition government because if you look at the opinion polls all the parties that are running in these elections will not be able to muster it to pot to coalition except for a continuation of the so-called grand coalition between the social democrats and the christian democrats they would with the some thirty six percent and twenty two percent of both parties together they would have a commanding majority in the federal. the stock of more than fifty and some fifty eight percent or maybe a little more but no other communication presently as far as opinion polls go it will have such a majority the free democrats which have been voted out of the last going to stock in the elections of two thousand thirteen have come back strong and they want to

be a part of a coalition but they probably will not score high enough to be able to have it coalition exclusively with the christian democrats they to together under present. opinion polls it would only muster about forty five percent which is not the necessary absolute majority so that would force the chancellor when she would build a coalition to look for another partner which other greens and together with the fruit democrats and the greens they would become a majority of fifty to fifty three percent which would be enough but they are strong contra sees between the free democrats and the greens and it is not sure that they would be able to form together with the leading christian democrats a correlation so some people in the disk of political discussions in the media

think that at the end of all these discussions we will have a continuation of the grand coalition. well that's your near partner of the c.d.u. be able to sack key decisions on hear a pin integration specifically and how. i think the european integration is not a very controversial point because all of them a strong proponent of european unity and it's only a question of it's only a question of how you do it but i think the current as a european issue is not a real issue among the christian democrats and the social democrats nor between the christian democrats the free democrats and the greens so if the choice of the coalition partner is so important can we say that this election has become about a third place party not the actual winner but the strength of the third party

is important. if there is a grand coalition because the search party this lead strongest party will be the leader of the opposition in the future. and if that should be the turning to for germany which is the right wing opponent which is really against any of the existing parties in the bundestag if they would be the spokesman for the opposition in the future period of the buddhist until twenty twenty nine twenty one. then people would be rather upset that the first one to speak for the government has spoken would be this outright rightist party and that is why the run for place number three is important but the small right party alternative for

germany is being branded as racist and demagogue a financial times poll shows a of to support standing at ten percent now in this case that would mean a if the will become the third party in german parliament how would that affect the political scene that is rather awkward for because they have a very. anti a system approach that they deny many things which the traditionally accepted among the politically acceptable party in germany that is a completely new approach which is as you say it is right just it is at times extremist it's not all the way through the program it's not all the way through extremist but in very many issues and at points it's also racist right and that is if someone would. challenge the government with

words which have a racist undertone that of course would be very uncomfortable. they have tea party members have many times criticized their opponents for copying their party's agenda and them indeed when the social democrats presented their new platform in may it included better protection of the european union's external borders faster deputations why is this happening german political landscape leaning right word in general under pressure from the hardliners. no this is rather due to the fact that the question of migration which rose in the fall of two thousand and fifteen two years ago is a very controversial issue and may be in the election campaign that was the most important issue even though as the traditional parties were not willing to really go into the details of this discussion the discussion always came up again and

again and at the. turn to for germany it was the one who fuss that discussion mostly because at the beginning one can say that this party was. was stopped because of the strong contradiction against this policy two years ago and i mean all parties were forced to. take up that disk is discussion and therefore one can say they have taking points of the program of the. terms of germany into their own pod party program but as i said it is just the point that this issue had to be discussed by all parties now while the anti islam ressa recall c a f t make germany is muslim so which is a sizeable community more likely to actually get out there and votes actually

backfiring on a.s.d. . well i mean when. the. migrant society part of the society which is about fifteen percent is not really united in any kind of affiliation to one party in the process they have mostly voted for the social democrats but that need not necessarily be. they if they would really go voting one doesn't know because there is the they're part of that minority that is well integrated and they probably will vote but there is another i would say a large pot of these newly arriving immigrants who do not have the right to vote yet and they will not and will not be able to vote and most of them have lived in

their closed communities and i think they had just not participating in the poor little political life of the country and therefore it is doubtful whether this will have a strong influence on the result of the elections. ok we're going to take a short break right now when we're back we'll continue discussing the upcoming german elections and why they are important for the rest of the world stay with us .

manufacture consent to public wealth. when the ruling classes protect themselves. we can all middle of the room sit. room.

at the united nations u.s. president donald trump described his vision of foreign policy as principled a realist he also tried to convince the gathering of the general assembly that his idea of america first is compatible with this vision. he sees the world no differently than his predecessors.

and we're back with dr aarons to your call the phone discussing to upcoming chairman parliamentary election welcome back to the show i don't merkel support among the german use a cell in the rice this election fifty three percent among the general population versus fifty seven among the young what's behind that because i always thought that young people vote left that going conservative is not that cool if we had swings in the attitude of the young people over the years and there was they were leaning to the left particularly i would say forty years ago at the time of chancellor brunt there was a definite he was very popular with the with the left but equally with the youth but then there pendulum has swung back and i would say in general presently the

young generation is more conservative thinking. in previous times so their support of them for the chancellor in the way is a logical consequence. yet it was out in the mission scandal when they offered giant was implicated in covering up an acceptable pollution levels in its cars has cast a shadow on the whole german auto industry and made chancellor merkel now attack the industry saying she's upset with its dishonesty just as in corporations may bring votes but isn't she afraid to lose the support of big business. well i mean the discussion of the pollution particularly motor cars generated pollution isn't that big issue presently but it has various aspects in the one aspect is that there are forty five million cars registered in germany and quite a large number of people as using diesel engines and if the diesel engine were

prohibited altogether maybe a twenty million people would be barred from driving a car and that of course is a no no and chancellor merkel knows quite well that she cannot untag on the eyes this part of the electorate so that is one aspect the other aspect is that the. automobile industry is one of the strongest pillars of german industry and german automobile exports have been soaring over many years and this is one of the backbones of all economy so we want we don't want to lose it if we lost. a major part of our exports from the motor car industry that would mean is that some of the eight hundred thousand work places in that part

of the industry would be in question so there are many aspects which have to be taken into account not the least also the question of clean air so in this triangle. of varying interests the chancellor has to speak because she won't and take a nice any one of these three elements but germany has always been one of america's staunchest allies and europe but neither americal nor shilts are big fans of don't trump chancellor and went as far as saying this about the united states the times when we could completely rely on others are to an extent over with all the current candidates holding an anti white house view to a certain extent as this show that they lie and faltering no i don't think that the alliances faltering i mean there is strong controversies within the alliance

but everyone is quite convinced that we need that alliance and that this alliance is a political stronghold for the security of our countries so one will stick to what has what is there and in the process after the election of president trump as the minister of defense secretary of defense. was in over here in the alliance as was the foreign minister and both of them reinforced very strongly the american interest in the alliance and this is what met was of course consensus on the side of our government so in spite of the fact that there is. quite some disagreement with the president other elements in the u.s. . administration seem to strengthen the attitude of the point

of view that the alliance after all will continue and false as the main element of security. of europe. but germany is becoming a leading to or paying nation dominating the e.u. decisions taking of the continental united forward is it ready to carry the burden of one of the global leaders to carry the burden of a global leader germany is just too small and just too weak i mean very definitely germany is a strong one of the strongest countries in the world as far as economy economy is concerned but as far as political clout is concerned that we cannot compare ourselves neither with the us nor with russia and all with china so we have to know the place we have and if you say germany being the dominant patna in the european union this is what you will he ever so often in the present discussions but one

has to see that the european union even if england is leaving now the great britain is leaving the us still twenty seven populous left who all want to have a say in the decisions of the european union and in spite of the fact that germany is politically strong in europe is economically strong and europe we still have. to heed what the other does want to say and what their contribution in the decisions where you are up wants to go. post for exit here politicians have been talking about iraq form and merkel herself sat she wouldn't mind going down that road while the new term of hers be the time of change for the european union. the european union has to change i think everybody is convinced of that and that is again not a controversial issue among all the traditional parties in the german bund

a stock on the other hand again it needs the agreement with twenty six of the populace and where this will come down the general agreement on the further development of the european union is not visible the chancellor merkel has not sate said anything so far. where she wants to take away she once would like to lead the european union in which direction there will be more to come but we haven't seen anything yet you know one of the reasons for america is numbers dropping and only now recovering the us are opened or migrant policy which later reversed by striking a refugee deal with turkey has this flip flop on policy brought her points or further damage her position i think the migrant policy or as i said earlier already and in two thousand and fifteen has been very critical and

it has been strongly criticised all the time through and still is under criticism nowadays the question of migrants isn't solved the chancellor tried to find similar agreements as was turkey with tunisia was and was morocco but they haven't borne fruit so far the trade conditions under which the european union is trading with these countries have to be changed because the. the strength of the european union was very detrimental for the development of local and regional economies and only if these economies are developed and. recreate a livelihood for the people there will be in the final event see the stop of this immigration from these countries they're both merkel's anshul his parties are

talking about the importance of better ties with moscow both call for partial lifting of sanctions if moscow complies with minsk agreements what's your prediction shall we expect russian germany's relation to become warmer or is this is this a sincere to fix relations with moscow or do you think it's about winning over the votes of russian germans. no the russian german vote is not the decisive pop the decisive pop in this question is really where will we go with germany and europe go with russia in the yes to come chancellor merkel has been very mental effect in that as she was convinced that after the crimea annex ation and the. war in the east ukraine crane things couldn't go on as. normal business as before so and that was the reason why we are in

a difficult situation right now on the other hand johnson america as we have seen with her recent conversation with president putin is willing to continue working relationship with russia and i think that would be what we would see in the next four years to come there have been warnings in their price about this supposed russian involvement in german his election and one of the less serious parties a party has jokingly blame putting forward trains not running on time for a car accidents phone no functions as a washington car gotten to ridiculous or to people actually still believe it in germany we haven't seen end to end any interference as far as cyber warfare or cyber intervention is concerned. only today or yesterday the minister of interior said he hasn't seen anything and he doesn't expect anything that this would be done

to interfere with our federal elections coming sunday so what ever all these speculations whether there was a russian interference in the american elections are not whether there was anything in france and not it does not concern germany and i mean we. soft of a possible intervention of that type and i think we were prepared and we are prepared not to fall victim to it. all right thank you very much for this interview dr. nate's it's been great talking to you we're talking about the upcoming german elections and the challenges ahead for the nation's new leader with veteran german diplomat former ambassador to russia dr ernest york launched admits that's it for this latest edition of says he and i will see you next time.

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was is generally all to what i did was done on a cocktail of legal drugs. just because something's legal doesn't mean it's same. russian submarines fire rockets at all knows there are terrorist positions and western syria the russian defense ministry says all targets. hit. north korea threatens to test a hydrogen bomb in the pacific just hours after washington's flock to stage with yet more sanctions. thousands gather in barcelona demanding the release of a dozen regional officials arrested by spanish authorities madrid calls catalunya upcoming independence referendum illegal. with the drug elections just around the corner.