political correspondent hans brandt ons the latest polls continue to give merkel's c.d.u. a double digit lead why has it been so hard for any candidate to pose a serious threat against her it's got to do with personal issues not only popular amongst us but quite far beyond that even as far as the left wing left party or even the green party the environmentalist greens and obviously also amongst versions of the social democrats amongst all of these people as a person is popular despite all maybe also because of her policies what's a very crucial in that is that she has been governing for twelve years and people are basically satisfied with her record and she is a kind of guarantee of continuity of a kind of calmness in the in the political sphere in a situation where the rest of the world is in a lot of upheaval the same polls have also placed the right wing populist a.f.d. party and third place what their election into parliament need for germany. well you could say that this is in a sense a kind of normalization if you look at other countries all around germany in europe there are right

let's get more on that now we are joined in the studio by political correspondent hans brandt so hans what's at stake today well any election obviously is an important election for the for the titians participating careers are at stake. questions about what they're going to do where they're going to stay in parliament or not in fact it's very likely that many that have been in parliament for the last four years will lose their jobs as it will lose their post in parliament but really the big question is who's going to be sued in this election because it seems very clear that i'm going to marcos christian democrats the c.d.u. will come first that the second place will stay with the social democrats of martin shows a third place is really what's crucial here. and there is the question what the populist right wing alternative for germany the a of fifty how well they are going to do if they are going to be a third largest party that will carry quite a shock to the political system here so what are the polls then saying and can we rely on them. at the moment the most recent polls giving the

political correspondent hans brandt hands the latest polls continue to give merkel's c.d.u. i think an if you can double digit lead why is it been so hard for any candidate to break through and pose a serious threat to her. well she is very popular even beyond the reaches of her party even within hours of the social democratic spectrum she's as a person and she's impressed germans for twelve years that she's been in power and i think there is a sense even amongst her critics that she stands for a certain continuity and a certain. calm in dealing with a very difficult international situation so i think her personal. her personal reputation is what is really pushing the c.d.u. ahead at the moment and the same poll numbers also place the right wing populist a.f.d. party in third place not by fair elections into parliament need for germany well i mean it's obviously been as we've just heard the situation with the refugees in the last couple of years hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants coming into germany that has pushed people away from going to markets conservatives

parliamentary process we simply don't know at the moment all right our political correspondent hans brandt on the challenges facing the next german government thank you very much and and as we were just a saying that the newly elected a.f.p. members they have gathered for their first parliamentary group meeting and one of its prospective parliamentary group leaders alex vital told reporters the group would begin by appointing its officers and drawing up its agenda and other leading member of its inner galland said the a.f.p. would use different language in parliament to the often provocative rhetoric they used on the campaign trail. let's take a look now at one of the strongholds in the eastern a german state of saxony fundament isn't visible if it's a small town outside of dresden where the far right took more than thirty percent of the vote there fabienne what have you seen how people been the reacting to those results. well people here are quite happy with these results and if you look at david's. ram here this is a small town with fourteen thousand inhabitants and it's quite a pictures

prevention which means a lot of social work as well so police alone won't fix the job rafi and hans brandt we thank you very much for your analysis on this topic security here in germany. well so far we have been looking at the domestic challenges that lie ahead but this is a globalized world of course and in these turbulent times more and more people are looking to germany for leadership let's take a look now at some of the foreign policy challenges that await the next government . on the international stage demands for berlin to pull away to growing but the challenges facing germany's next chancellor of the us stopping conflicts in syria in eastern ukraine and over north korea's missiles in the face of unpredictable strongmen such as putin and kim joan. stopping the destructive force of climate change in the face of another unpredictable strongman domo trump. and what about germany's role in the eurozone so from penny pinching you know stereotype has been berlin's ounces to currency crisis so when will the next chancellor lead germany towards a greater role in world affairs or is this al

opposition in the next government and the next legislature rather we are joined now in the studio by hans brandt and by political scientists all over from schiller university gentlemen thank you so much for being here and i'll turn to you first because we know that merkel she needs to find coalition partners we've been talking about her various options but it seems pretty clear that she's going to face a pretty vocal opposition isn't she. absolutely she will face opposition obviously from the rightwing f.d.a. which is new and parliament will have to set its smocks at its set itself up in parliament and will probably initially be particularly vocal but of course there is also opposition from the far left as we've just seen there have been in parliament for a long time they were the largest opposition party. as it were fighting or opposing this grand coalition that has ruled so far and so they're being pushed into a bit of a you join you in a row now and he was just saying so and so they were also trying to increase their profile again in opposition so they will be very vocal opposition both from

majority of germans would back such a coalition so what might a new german government look like hans brandt joins us more for more on that from our parliamentary studio yeah how could a coalition with the free democrats and the greens differ from the last government . well it's already still very much up in the air the coalition talks haven't really started yet at the moment all parties involved trying to position themselves at the moment are trying to say which matters are particularly important for them refugee question is a central question in that there is of course the. sister party of america in bavaria the christian social union who have been pushing for some sort of cap on the number of refugees that can enter germany berthe the other parties involved the free democrats and the greens have said that there's no no chance of such a cap being imposed so they are the positions at the moment are still very far apart and it's very difficult to say how these things will work out and what kind of government will come out in the end the whole process is likely to take a long time if it's fin

political correspondent hans brandt is here and joshua who's a first time voter and a children's rights campaigner welcome both of us are with you hans brant if reality reflects the polls and the fifty becomes the third strongest party in the bundestag what's that like it's mean for german politics it's changed german politics already of course it's become more or cause raucous and substance more vicious than that. form that form of the bed is going to. moving to parliament there is a further question there if the grand coalition the coalition between the christian democrats the conservatives and the social democrats continues then the if tea the alternative for germany would be the largest opposition party and that in turn would give it formal influence in the running of parliament in. voting. speaking times in parliament and so on that would increase its influence increase its disruptive possibilities within the parliament to i sure hope that as this surge in support for the f.t. as has this had much of an effect on younger voters well i mean people have realised that the f.t. is gain

political power is very much up in the air this morning i'm joined now by our political correspondent hans brandt good morning hans will be able to put together a coalition with the greens in the free democrats that are at opposite ends of the spectrum it's going to take a lot of time people say if we have a new government by christmas that will be good going we have to say that obviously is a very good negotiator you also have to say that they are quite a number of people involved in these negotiations that are interested in actually being in government and actually having it goes for the greens especially they've set up a whole campaign in the last few months on that premise the free democrats are a little bit more hesitant then there's obviously i'm going to knock us party who is in a sense condemned to leading a new government because they are the strongest party and i think is very interested in continuing with her policies in germany so it's going to be very delicate it's going to take a long time they're going to be concessions that have to be made on both sides. we're going to have to wai