all right for more in this country and by kate brady our political correspondent kate going back to the question of nala successor and names of being circulated already and i believe we're going to listen now to what one potential successor said often made her announcement. i think this iteration is very very serious at the moment to say otherwise would be wrong we are aware of this and therefore it is important for me to again to state clearly that we are not going to make any rash decisions rather we will consult with one another and think carefully about our next steps it is important to send the signal that this party is not without leadership as does apartheid and who influences all right now we've got cape radio political correspondent joining me here in the studio and we're also joined by my a shway to who i believe is standing by at the social democrat party headquarters no in fact it is my colleague william no clue croft williams was a pleasure to see can you tell us what's going on at the s.p.d. headquarters william do we have william oh no now we have my colleague my can you

kate brady kate thanks for joining us. why the sudden resignation well this certainly is a direct response to those die a results that we saw just 7 days ago in the european elections of course historic lows now for the social democrats that currently the 3rd strongest party here in germany according to those e.u. election results and there's even been polls this week as well where we've seen on the greens topping the polls here in germany and of course the s.p.d. made huge losses to the greens in there is action losing more than a 1000000 voters to them so this is very much a response to those failings now nonis was seen as a fresh hope really wasn't she for the s.p.d. someone who could bring back voters off to massive losses in the last national election what's gone wrong so quickly well there really was some hope there but at the same time she faced criticism from day one of course there were many skeptics and critics within the social democrats who had advised against going into yet another grand coalition the so-called grand coalition with angela merkel's conservatives and there was that hope that the next leader of the social democrats would move the party away from the center of germany's political spectrum and move them back towards the left to redefine the party's profile and redefine exactly what it is that they stood for and we can take a look now at a piece here about andrea knowledge and exactly what she stood for and her political career. fund to be enormous 1st joined the social democratic party more than 20 years ago as the leader of the party's youth organization she studied german and political science in one of her very 1st interviews she told g.w. that a career in politics was not in the cards. for you but i don't want to stay in politics for the rest of my life so after being chair i want to look for a real job. and for that i need a good degree. but after finishing university 4 years later now lists rose in the ranks of the s.p.d. 1st as a parliamentarian then labor minister and ultimately party leader germany's minimum wage law 1st introduced in 2015 was one of her key achievements now as has a reputation for being outspoken after her rousing speech at an s.t.d. convention party members agree to change course and form a coalition with angela merkel's conservatives rather than enter the opposition i think that if i were going to negotiate and get some more good results that's why voting yes today is worth it. now as was the party's 1st female leader since it was founded more than 150 years ago she was tasked with steering the s.p.d. back to its left wing roots but many are now asking if the decision to again partner with the center right c.d.u. was indeed worth it. all right we will be joined now by william green coffee political correspondent william the big question how will nala says resignation impact the governing coalition with. well is a member of parliament and she of course until today was leading the s.p.d. she was not did not have a role in the german government per se so there's no direct impact you could say on the german government but this is yet another sign of how weak i'm going to michael's junior partner in this so-called grand coalition is it how weak it's become in the last year or 2 since the 2017 national elections here in germany that put the the the s.p.d. and the c.d.u. again together in what many said was an unhappy marriage of convenience to put a government together and these parties have just been weakening and weakening and getting lower and lower support in the polls and today's resignation announcement by andre and alex is just one more sign of trouble in the governing coalition. all right kate turning to you is there anyone who is an obvious successor to nala well one name that is already being thrown around is schultz who is currently the german finance minister and also the vice chancellor but at the same time if the s.p.d. . does now indeed one gets profile to the left as it promised before or were rather as it joined this loveless marriage as it was william mentioned with angela merkel's conservative then he is not the man for the job and at the moment there is no of the real obvious candidate that will be interesting in the coming days to see exactly which names are put forward by her for that position as i speak the party leader but also as parliamentary group leader in the bundestag job may be william now some political analysts are saying that governing with merkel c.d.u. only damage the s.p.d. was it a mistake to enter into this grand coalition again. many would say so the s.p.d. has been weakening and losing its its main its main. party lines its main its main tal

on for some more analysis i'm joined here in the studio with political correspondent kate brady kate hi thanks for joining me so most was supposed to put her leadership the leadership of the parliamentary group to a vote on tuesday why this sudden resignation i think this is a very clearly direct reaction to those election results that we saw just 7 days ago of course they were dismal results for the s.p.d. for the social democrats they walked away with just 15.8 percent of the vote in the elections specifically in germany now of course that's quite a small figure for any party but that this is as we heard there from michigan at a mile this is one of the leading once upon a time at least now one of the leading parties in germany it was known as one of the centrist plus one of the big tent parties and is currently governing with merkel's conservatives as well so those were huge losses but there has already been some criticism as well as a from within the social democrat ranks about how andrea not as was treated as the party leader after those election results were published with many

kate brady kate thanks for joining us nonis was supposed to put her leadership of the parliamentary group to vote on tuesday why this sudden resignation caylee she's taken this decision into her own hands and as you mentioned that was for the position as parliamentary group leader but in this decision today she's actually announced it will be standing down as party leader as well to separate. positions in the social democrats to huge decisions to make and this is clearly a very direct reaction to those really quite dismal results that we saw just a week ago in the elections with the s.p.d. now sacked as the 3rd strongest party in germany they walked away with just under 60 percent of the votes dismal for any party but especially for a woman that is currently in the governing coalition of course they are currently governing germany with merkel's conservatives what does this mean for the for the s.p.d. well clearly they have a lot of soul searching today right now and they say is going to really be interesting to see how the social democrats want to move forward this is a conversation that we've had before as well not so long ago when andree analysis oaf was appointed party leader of the s.p.d. and there was certainly hopes that among the members of the social democrats that she would be able to move the party away from the center ground of germany's political spectrum where they've drifted towards joining that time in coalition with merkel's conservatives and really then redefine exactly what it is that the social democrats stand for and of course under analysis it seems has failed to fulfill those hopes and we can have a look now actually at a report we have here on. her political career. fund to be an honest 1st joined the democratic party more than 20 years ago as the leader of the party's youth organization. she studied german and political science in one of her very 1st interviews she told g w that a career in politics was not in the cards. shopping it for you but i don't want to stay in politics for the rest of my life so after being chair i want to look for a real job and for that i need a good degree. but after finishing university 4 years later now let's rose in the ranks of the s.p.d. 1st as a parliamentarian then labor minister and ultimately party leader germany's minimum wage law 1st introduced in 2015 was one of her key achievements now as has a reputation for being outspoken after her rousing speech at an s.p.d. convention party members agree to change course and form a coalition with angela merkel's conservatives rather than enter the opposition of the good side and we're going to negotiate and get some more good results that's why voting yes today is worth it. now as was the party's 1st female leader since it was founded more than 150 years ago she was tasked with steering the s.p.d. back to its left wing roots but many are now asking if the decision to again partner with the center right c.d.u. was indeed worth it. has there been any reaction still from the s.p.d. so far well interestingly on the hasn't actually been any statement official statement as such from the s.p.d. yet but there has been mixed reactions even on social major from lead in s.p.d. members. this situation is very very serious at the moment to say otherwise would be wrong we are aware of this and therefore it is important for me to again to state clearly that we are not going to make any rash decisions rather we will consult with one another and think carefully about our next steps it is important to send the signal that this party is not without leadership this is apartheid for. all right kate so how will nala says resignation impact the governing coalition with michael cd i mean this really does impact jim because the hold of it certainly does i mean the governing coalition between this grand coalition between merkel's conservatives and the s.p.d. it was already in a very fragile state of course it was arnie formed in early 2018 and already it's faced face several crises not so long ago of course you might remember the crisis involving the interior minister and last summer and so this is going to send tremors through that coalition once again of course we are expecting angela merkel herself and a great from karrenbauer the leader of the conservatives both to give separate statements this evening the conservatives were actually meeting today anyway to reassess and see what went wrong in the e.u. elections last week of course they also suffered huge losses in those elections so this resignation today really does bring into question how much of a stable coalition is there rig

kate brady hi kate thank you both for joining us hans i'll start with you how is the s.p.d. coping with this shock and now it's meant. well 1st of all there was a sense of shock obviously i think there were disputes going on within the party everybody knew that andrea nodders was their position was threatened but nobody expected her to resign today so the party has been in the kind of damage control scramble for the whole day there have been emergency meetings in the party headquarters here behind me all day long that will continue tomorrow morning and at the moment it seems as though the politic is going to try and find a kind of interim solution to a point to some senior members of the party that don't have ambitions themselves to the major positions that are underway and all this is not all resigning from and then to find some time to consider. succession will comedy as it were in the next couple of weeks or months now k b s p days the junior partner in john's langley mccool's coalition what does this mean for her government well if self said if was to go by that it really seems that she's keen to push on with this government until the end of this term and that will of course will also be her 4th and final term as chancellor and that would go into 2021 but of course they say resignation from analysis day has of course sent tremors through this coalition and has yet again brought into question the credibility of this government is it still stable enough to leave many and was even stable enough in the 1st place of course there were always concerns and criticism from both sides but particularly from the more left leaving wing of the social democrats that going into this government this governing coalition once again wouldn't give the social democrats the time and the space to redefine its profile but some that's also something which the conservative c.d.u. is also trying to do right now so already have to say exactly how. and of course the 2 coalition parties actually intend on the continuing forward with this very fragile coalition now hands as we just heard merkel is very cane she wants to keep the government going wants to continue their work but how likely is it that the social democrats will want to continue being a part of the coalition. well there is a very very strong faction within the social democrats that has been saying for a very long time already that being in a grand coalition with the. is no good for the social democrats because they lose their political profile that all the achievements that these grand coalitions to achieve all these goals if they do achieve are really given credit i think they give credit to i'm going to knock a lot of the social democrats so it was in fact on to be a novice who pushed a party into this grand coalition there were serious doubts about that when this coalition was false forms gone all there's a big challenge that that faction that wants to get out of this grand coalition will get a lot stronger and there are many commentators so they expect this government not to last the year well it's not the 1st time the coalitions being in trouble it's certainly is and it wasn't so long ago we were sat here for what felt like months but it was just a number of weeks in which this government found itself in the middle of a near crisis last summer it was brought to the brink of collapse over that migration. question between that and that was a large issue to lodge debate between actually within the conservatives between the interior ministry minister story and the german chancellor and of course these issues seem to keep popping up time and time again which is why the credibility of this coalition keeps being brought into question well under analysts was the 1st female leader of the german social democrats and before we talk more about her decision to resign let's take a quick look back at her career. it was the high point of her career in april 20000 and to be anonymous became the head of the social democrats for the 1st time in the party's long history a woman who was at the helm is going skilling in the end we're going to make it together we are strong we will succeed that's my promise. her commitment to the social democrats was unwavering born into a working class family in former west germany now as founded the 1st local s.p.d. association in a conservative district her political views have typically ranged from far left to moderate. in 1905 the newly elected socialist youth chairwoman professed her feet and karl marx. i love the transition angles the philosopher said his name will live on through the centuries and so will his work i'm certain of this. she proved her resilience both in past leadership functions and as labor minister in the previous coalition after the party's dismal showing in germany's 2017 elections it was clear she would emerge as a key player. yesterday the s.p.d. is needed i told you so you know but more bad alexion results left deep wounds in the s.p.d. after andrea analysis fought for her party to enter another governing coalition with the center right the s.p.d. suffered heavy losses in state elections now this is hope of reenergizing the party failed to win over voters now that her own party members have lost faith in her leadership now liz has thrown in the towel after 20 years. now huns under analysis was one of 3 leaders the us payday is headed any 2 years but is this crisis really about her or is this a crisis of the german social democrats in general. i think one has to say it's a little bit of both clearly the social democrats are deeply and crisis has been losing votes for years there's been a lot of infighting in the party for years. struggling to redefine their policies from the kind of traditional social democratic left wing positions which have been failing all over europe in fact if you look at france for instance the socialists there have all but disappeared but at the same time it's also a problem that i think one can put it that often we are not as she is a rather abrasive personality she is a political insider she's gotten to the position that she has through moving and tactical maneuvers within the party that have so far been a very successful but in recent times she's made several political mistakes and clearly hope all play within the party has not been successful in recent days and rather than being voted out of office in the next couple of days she seems to have decided to call it a day immediately. members of the social democrats have mixed reaction to this surprise announcement let's take a listen. i was never a fan of knowledge but the way they treated her recently they would never have done that to him and 100 percent of what. they think it is and i think it's a good step towards a new start for the s.p.d. now all votes can be counted democratically understood and you know was all of this new so i do think it's going to the s.p.d. will go wander. into. homs one of the women there saying that no man would have been treated the way under you know us was treated what do you say to that. yes i think there's an element of truth in that the social democrat party has been governed has been controlled by fairly old men for a long time and especially in recent days the personal attacks against underway and others even in public have become really quite sharp quite vitriolic and i think there is an element of how shall i say of anti woman's sentiment in there from from the establishment in the party at the same time one does have to say that she does have as i said in a brace of personality she doesn't always choose who would say well she can use words that also. damaging to the party and to other people that she's talking about so it's also partly her personality but i think the fact that she is a the fact that she's a woman was a was a serious part of this dispute so kate where to from here what happens next for the german government has said we're going to be some soul searching now not only on the social democrat side but also from the concept of it seems that yet another close call for the german government has been avoided but that's only for now so let's see how long this can keep stable for. brady and hans brown thank you both very much. you're watching the dummy news from berlin and then forget you can get all the latest news and information around the clock on our website at state every dot com i'm rebecca reeses in berlin thanks for joining. us kill the they work that hard and in the end this is a me your not a lot of the year and more we was into that. are you familiar with this. with the smugglers were liars of the what's your story ready. i mean when i was a women especially are victims of violence and to take part and send us your story we are trying in all ways to understand this new culture. another visitor another guests you want to bec

kate brady hi kate thank you both for joining us hans i'll start with you how is the s.p.d. coping with this shock and now it's meant. well 1st of all there was a sense of shock obviously i think there were disputes going on within the party everybody knew that andrea nodders was what their position was threatened but nobody expected her to resign today so the party has been in a kind of damage control scramble for the whole day there has been emergency meetings in the party headquarters here behind me all day long that will continue tomorrow morning at the moment it seems as though the politic is going to try and find a kind of interim solution to a point to some senior members of the party that don't have ambitions themselves to the major positions that are under way and all this is not all resigning from now and then to find some time to consider. succession will call me as it would the next couple of weeks or months now k b s p days the junior partner in john's langley mccool's coalition what does this mean for government well if. so said if was to go by that it really seems that she's keen to push on with this government until the end of this term and that will of course will also be her 4th and final term as chancellor and that would go until 2021 but of course they say resignation from andrea knowledges today has of course sent tremors through this coalition and has yet again brought into question the credibility of this government is it still stable enough to lead in the end was even stable enough in the first a place of course there were always concerns and criticism from both sides but particularly from the more left leaving wing of the social democrats that going into this government this governing coalition once again wouldn't give the social democrats the time and the space to redefine its profile but some that's also something which the conservative c.d.u. is also trying to do right now so radio have to say exactly how. and of course the 2 coalition parties actually intend on a continuing forward with this very fragile coalition now hands as we just heard merkel is very cane she wants to keep the government going wants to continue their work but how likely is it that the social democrats will want to continue being a part of the coalition. well there is a very very strong faction within the social democrats that has been saying for a very long time already that being in a grand coalition with the consul is no good for the social democrats because they lose their political profile that all the achievements that these grand coalitions do achieve all these goals if they do achieve are really given credit i think they give credit to i'm going to knock a lot of the social democrats so it was in fact under the are not as pushed a party into this drawn coalition they were serious. when this coalition was false forms gone all there's a big challenge that that faction that wants to get out of this grand coalition will get a lot stronger and there are many commentators so they expect this government not to last the year well it's not the 1st time the coalitions being in trouble right certainly is and it wasn't so long ago we were sat here for what felt like months but it was just a number of weeks in which this government found itself in the middle of a near crisis last summer it was brought to the brink of collapse over that migration. question between that and that was a large issue to large debate between actually within the conservatives between the interior ministry minister story and the german chancellor and of course these issues seem to keep popping up time and time again which is why the credibility of this coalition keeps being brought into question well under analysis was the 1st female leader of the german social democrats and before we talk more about her decision to resign let's take a quick look back at her career. it was the high point of her career in april 20000 and to be anonymous became the head of the social democrats for the 1st time in the party's long history a woman who was at the helm as the unschooling in the we're going to make it together we are strong we will succeed that's my promise. her commitment to the. social democrats was unwavering born into a working class family in former west germany now is founded the 1st local s.p.d. association in a conservative district her political views have typically ranged from far left to moderate. in 1905 the newly elected socialist youth chairwoman professed her faith and karl marx i love the transition angles the philosopher said his name will live on through the centuries and so will his work i'm certain of this. she proved her resilience both in past leadership functions and as labor minister in the previous coalition after the party's dismal showing in germany's 2017 elections it was clear she would emerge as a key player. yesterday the s.p.d. is needed i told you so you know but more bad alexion results left deep wounds in the s.p.d. after andrea analysis fought for her party to enter another governing coalition with the center right the s.p.d. suffered heavy losses in state elections now this is hope of reenergizing the party failed to win over voters now that her own party members have lost faith in her leadership now liz has thrown in the towel after 20 years. now huns under analysis was one of 3 leaders the esp a day has had only 2 years but is this crisis really about her or is this a crisis of the german social democrats in general. i think one has to say it's a little bit of both clearly the social democrats are deeply and crisis has been losing votes for years there's been a lot of infighting in the party for years. struggling to redefine their policies from the kind of traditional social democratic left wing positions which have been failing all over europe in fact if you look at france for instance the socialists there have all but disappeared but at the same time it's also a problem that i think one can put at the door frankly i'm not as she is rather abrasive personality she is a political insider she's gotten to the position that she has through moving and tactical maneuvers within the party that have so far been very successful but in recent times she's made several political mistakes and clearly powerplay within the party has not been successful in recent days and rather than being voted out of office in the next couple of days she seems to have decided to call it a day immediately. members of the social democrats had mixed reaction to this surprise announcement let's take a listen. i was never a fan of his but the way they treated her recently they would never have done to him and months. since they think this is i think it's a good step towards a new start for the s.p.d. now while votes can be counted democratically and the student in the office all the emphasis and i do think it's going to the s.p.d. will go on to go into. hands one of the women there saying that no man would have been treated the way under you know us was treated what do you say to that. yes i think there's an element of truth in that the social democrat party has been governed has been controlled by fairly old men for a long time and especially in recent days the personal attacks against andrea and others even in public have become really quite sharp quite vitriolic. i think there is an element of how shall i say of anti woman sentiment in there from from the establishment in the party at the same time one does have to say that she does have as i say been a brace of for personality she doesn't always choose who would say well she can use words that also. damaging to the party and to other people that she's talking about so it's also partly her personality but i think the factor that she is of the fact that she's a woman was a was a serious part of this dispute so kate where it went to from here what happens next for the german government has said we're going to be some soul searching now not only on the social democrat side but also from the concept it seems that yet another close call for the german government has been avoided but that's only for now so let's see how long this can keep stable for. brady and holmes brown thank you both very much. now to some of the other stories making news around the world. china has issued a rare statement concerning the 989 tenements where crackdown on student protesters in beijing defense minister away from haiti defended the military's action in which thousands of protesters were killed the 30th anniversary of the massacre is being commemorated around the world. u.s. secretary of state mike peo says washington is willing to talk to iran with no preconditions speaking in switzerland he said the u.s. would still am to rein in what he called iran's malign activity to fund. several people have been injured in veni

kate brady so kate knowledges was supposed to put her leadership of the parliamentary group to vote just on tuesday 2 days from now so why this sudden resignation exactly she's taken this decision out of her hands and she actually informed the party this morning in a statement announcing her regular resignation both as party leader of the social democrats and of the parliamentary group we can have a look now at that statement in which she said that discussions in the parliamentary group and feedback from the party of sharon i no longer have the necessary support to carry out my duties and so she will be standing down as s.p.d. party leader and as the leader of the parliamentary group as of tomorrow so did this statement from knowledge's take her party members by surprise what's been their reaction it's a new has been a little bit of a surprise in the short term we think she'd already pulled forward to this this vote that was planned for choose day on her leadership of the parliamentary group that was actually planned for september that already being brought forward because of the diaries the record lows for the social democrats here in germany in last week's european elections and also in a very important state election for them that took part that took place story on the same weekend there has been a real mixed bag of reactions from the social democrats this morning. so my expression that regret of course knowledge led to the posse really into this current coalition government that we have here in germany with angela merkel's conservative cd here and she really valid to the party forward there was this whole plan to a new and revitalize the party but so far she has been able to do anything but that it seems of course they missed the boat again when it came to tackling the correct issues when it came to the us. paean elections and now they find themselves in 3rd position as the 3rd strongest party in germany which of course doesn't spell good news when they're currently in the governing coalition all right so fundamentalists was not able to give the s.p.d. the turnaround to that they were hoping for as their leader is there someone else who's poised to take her spot it's very difficult to say right now of course she said in her statement today that she was hoping hoping for an orderly handover which is why she decided as well to step back as party leader. but one name that is already doing the rounds today is all off shots who is currently the german finance minister and also the vice chancellor so he could indeed possibly be a comes in a candidate but we will have to see of course whether anyone wants to take on that responsibility now in what's becoming a rather curse position in the in the s.p.d. is another question of course not this is pretty decisive. step down only a game ago was martin schultz there were high hopes for him ahead of the german election in 2017 and he just crushed out with quite a bang after the german elections at the time those were historic lows for the social democrats and now they've plummeted even further down those opinion polls with andrea analysis at the helm so i will have to say of the coming days who is going to be throwing their hat in the ring all right well with the leadership of the s.p.d. still certain what does that mean for the social democrats ability to govern i mean they're in a grand coalition with the c.d.u. is that coalition under threat now. i think it is and they expect to say that the coalition is under threat again if it wasn't already questions were already being asked last weekend after the results of the european elections where not only the social democrats but also on. cause conservative c.d.u. in the bavarian sister party the c.s.u. they all suffered huge losses the days there should democrats they lost more than a 1000000 voters to the greens and the c.d.u. the conservative c.d.u. also i'm say there are questions being asked right now how can they win these voters back this isn't a one off protest which was you know the kind of terminology we're hearing being thrown around after the general election of the federal election back in 2017 this is a growing trend there is less and less desire in germany to vote for these formally big tent parties and more centrist parties of the social democrats and the conservative c.d.u. so this still wouldn't the game a lot more soul searching to do and it will be interesting to see now how once again the s.p.d. proposes. its suggestion to tackle this and they'll win back those voters but right now it's seems that they're making the task even more difficult for themselves and already ones. political correspondent kate brady thank you for your analysis. let's get you up to speed now on some of the other stories making news around the world a poll shows john germany's greens have overtaken chancer on the americans conservatives for the 1st time to become the most popular party 27 percent say they would back the party in an election that puts them one point ahead of americans bloc of applicants for visas to be united states are now required to hand over its social media user names previous email addresses and phone numbers dating back 5 years the change took effect on friday and applies to nearly all these applicants as part of the trump administration's expansion of screening for would be immigrants and visitors. israeli defense forces have fired of military positions in syria syrian state media report that at least 3 soldiers were killed early on sunday with 7 others wounded israel says the attacks were and responsive to projectiles fired from syria towards the occupied golan heights to sports now a

kate brady so kate no this was in fact supposed to put her leadership of the parliamentary group to a vote just this coming tuesday so why the sudden resignation exactly is a surprise that she has decided to take this decision into her own hands of course that vote had already in fact been pulled forward from september after those dismal losses which you talked about there and this really is a time for a lot of question in the s.p.t. now to see exactly what direction they want to go and of course they've suffered huge losses they completely missed the correct issues in which they were they were really necessary to come pain on the head of those elections and so there's going to be a lot of soul searching now once again in the social democrats to see exactly what direction they want to go and so with knowledge vacating the leadership of the s.p.d. what does this mean for the s.p.d. moving forward moving forward of course there is a question of whether they want to also stay in the governing grand coalition of course at the moment they are in fact in government with angela merkel's conservatives here on having a great time in the opinion polls either at the moment there's some polls out this week that have put even the green party now as the strongest party in germany which is anything but a good sign for the 2 governing parties the c.d.u. muffles conservatives they've come out today and said that they want to push forward with the so-called grand coalition and of course neither the s.p.d. nor the c.d.u. will be wanting to put that coalition on the line right now with the chance of for example fresh elections of course if the current opinion polls are anything to go by then they wouldn't be doing well at all but of course this is going to be a chance for the s.p.d. wouldn't again to go forward with some sense of renewal now. so be interesting to see if they choose. perhaps a little further to the left of the of germany's political spectrum something which country and alice have promised to do but we can have a little look back now exactly where she is and what she has done so far. sundry analysis 1st joined the social democratic party more than 20 years ago as the leader of the party's youth organization she studied german and political science in one of her very 1st interviews she told g.w. that a career in politics was not in the cards. for you but i don't want to stay in politics for the rest of my life so after being chair i want to look for a real job and for that i need a good degree. but after finishing university 4 years later now it's rose in the ranks of the s.p.d. 1st as a parliamentarian then labor minister and ultimately party leader germany's minimum wage law 1st introduced in 2015 was one of her key achievements now as has a reputation for being outspoken after her rousing speech at an s.p.d. convention party members agree to change course and form a coalition with angela merkel's conservatives rather than enter the opposition. hands on i think we're going to negotiate and get some more good results that's why voting yes today is worth it. now as was the party's 1st female leader since it was founded more than 150 years ago she was tasked with steering the s.p.d. back to its left wing roots but many are now asking if the decision to again partner with the center right c.d.u. was indeed worth it. no kate and then all those informed her party members of her decision to step down in writing what's been the reaction among party members they seem a real mixed reaction it is interesting that there were just there was a statement just yesterday from some leading figures in the social democrats actually that said you know we are the party of solidarity reaffirming that position saying that they still stood behind andrea not us despite these dire results just 7 days ago in the elections and so some people were taken by surprise that she decided to kind of step back from the double at the same time by for a poly mentor group leader of the social democrats as party leader and many leading figures have expressed their regret that she is standing down while others have called now for the s.p.d. to unite but they certainly does seem like a very strong case of deja vu here these are statements that we heard again also previously after the federal elections here in germany in $27.00 tane about the s

for more analysis on this story i'm joined in the studio now by data political correspondent kate brady now kate merkel is about to speak i think we're going to be able to see you now but you ok. now merkel is about to speak what can we expect from her today i think if the comments that we've already heard from the conservative party data and click. anything to go by it's going to be another call for all muckle for this grand coalition that's overstating what the coalition here between the social democrats and the conservatives is known as here in germany to see whether that can really continue and she's no doubt going to be calling for that to continue we've also has from the various leading members of the german conservatives saying that germany needs a stable stable government a stable coalition and so obviously at the moment that's not what we're getting either from the social democrats who have been somewhat of a personal crisis but also the conservatives have their own problems too but i think it's very likely that we'll see michael coming out in just a short while now calling for this coa

kate brady said hello to you kate. underpaying aulus was actually supposed to put her leadership to a vote just this coming tuesday so why the sudden resignation exactly i mean this really is a direct response to those die of results that we saw for the social democrats here in germany and also in other parts of europe as well in last week's e.u. elections of course those results left the social democrats in. that currently the 3rd strongest party in germany they walked away with just under 16 percent of the vite that's a wreck old labor for the social democrats so this is certainly a direct response from that and as we saw there in the statement knowledge has taken this as a sign from vises and from of the party members that this is her time to go well with these very disappointing results i mean this is also quite a blow for knowledge as she was seen for a long time by many as the person who would give her party the s.p.d. a fresh start so what went wrong she really was seen as a bit of a hope to move the s.p.d. forward but of course there was also a lot of criticism at the time that she wouldn't move the social democrats far enough away from the sense of the geminis political spectrum and further back to the left and that's something that the s.p.d. the social democrats are still trying to grapple with is who are they who do they represent a posse but we can have a look now exactly who i'm sorry and alice was or is and what she stands for. sundry analysis 1st joined the social democratic party more than 20 years ago as the leader of the party's youth organization she studied german and political science in one of her very 1st interviews she told g w that a career in politics was not in the cards. chopping it for you but i don't want to stay in politics for the rest of my life so after being chair i want to look for a real job and for that i need a good degree. cruz says but after finishing university 4 years later now it's rose in the ranks of the s.p.d. 1st as a parliamentarian then labor minister and ultimately party leader germany's minimum wage law 1st introduced in 2015 was one of her key achievements now as has a reputation for being outspoken after her rousing speech at an s.p.d. convention party members agree to change course and form a coalition with angela merkel's conservatives rather than enter the opposition. designed we're going to negotiate and get some more good results that's why voting yes today is worth it. now as was the party's 1st female leader since it was founded more than 150 years ago she was tasked with steering the s.p.d. back to its left wing roots but many are now asking if the decision to again partner with the center right c.d.u. was indeed worth it. all right kate while with nala stepping down what's next for the s.p.d. well there will be a lot of soul searching now to see exactly how they are speedy wants to move forward as a party or are we actually going to see a leader that is going to move the social democrats further left and of course that could have huge repercussions in terms of the s.p.d. role in the governing grand coalition of course this is a huge deal. as well she's currently the leader of that governing coalition the so-called grand coalition between the conservatives and the social democrats but if the. last year and also it was shown as anything but grand about that coalition right now both the conservatives and the s.p.d. and doing extremely badly in the polls right now but the c.d.u. merkel's conservatives have come out today and said that they want to push for was with this grand coalition but of course it is extremely fragile and the fact is well the angela merkel has self is due to give a statement later today following th

political correspondent kate brady hi there to you kate so well no it was supposed to put her leadership of the party to a vote tuesday so why the sudden resignation well that was the vote that was planned for choosing which at the moment still seems to be going ahead that's not confirmed yet whether that will go ahead or not that's actually for the palm entry group leaderships or not it's actually held 2 positions in the s.p.d. is a party leader and the leader of the parliamentary group. which is something we have here in the german parliament so it's still unclear whether that's going to take place but it really seems that she's taken this decision out of the hands of her party and eventually probably most likely her party members as well if you look around the german media especially this morning there's quite a few headlines and piece of commentary already coming out about this being a surprise but actually if you look at the way that the things have played out for the s.p.d. for the social democrats in the last few months if not years this really doesn't come as a surprise and what

kate brady political correspondent for some more analysis on this so kate what does knowledge of resignation from these posts mean for the s.p.d. as a whole i think it was interesting that you mention are in other words a future direction which is going to be interesting for the social democrats what direction are they going because right now it seems that they're only head in downwards in the opinion polls this is get another sign of instability without doubt within the social democrats. and others had already pulled the vote on her leadership group leader forward from september to chuse day but what's the surprise here is that she's already decided to step down pati leader as well and of course as you mentioned they says all of the back of the diet results that we saw in the european elections i'm so there's going to be some big questions to ask now whether the s.p.d. wants to take itself of course and draw in all this was supposed to lead the social democrats forward in this renewal and this revitalization of the party a move them away from the center ground of the political spectrum in germany which had drifted further and further towards during those times in a coalition with conservatives so now the there will be a question there. are we going to see the social democrats really start to move left are we going to have a radical change of leadership there we'll have to see in the coming days who's going to step forward and put themselves down as a candidate and i think that another question on people's minds is what this means for the ability to govern as part of the grand coalition with angela merkel's c.d.u. party are they going to be able to stay on government exactly this is a big question and it was open for the whole coalition and it was supposed to have a bit of a temperature taking test later this year that was written into the coalition agreement with the conservatives to see if this marriage as it were is really working out of course the social democrats were very reluctant to go into yet another coalition with. conservatives they've lost a lot of that profile they've lost a lot of key issues to the conservatives which in turn has weakened their position among voters in opinion polls and it's become difficult for voters to really see exactly what they stand for but also the same goes for conservatives as well who on having a great time of it either right now both parties both governing coalition parties as social democrats and the conservatives made huge losses in last week's european elections and a lot of those votes a 1000000 more than a 1000000 voters from both sides of that grand so-called grand coalition went in fact to the greens policy here were celebrating yet again this week after a couple of new polls came out showing them as the strongest party now in germany they've surged through the polls in recent months particularly since the 2017 federal election here in germany so it really is going to be a question of whether the whether this grand coalition which right now is anything but grand can really keep it together the the c.d.u. . merkel's conservative c.d.u. they came out this morning saying that they want to push on with this grand coalition but whether we really will see this coalition make it through to the end of that term in 2021 but still i've been well kate it's not just within germany that the center left party was struggling and so poor results in the european elections we saw this happening in other european countries as well with the the social democratic parties suffering losses. is the center left as a whole facing a real crisis briefly if you can this really as a pattern that we're seeing across europe as you say but this doesn't only affect the social democrats but it's these what we call traditionally big tent parties a centrist parties so the mentions not only something that's effect in the social democrats slightly more to the left of this and but also the conservatives on the right we've seen across europe these 2 parties are 2 for factions ready moving towards the center of the political spectrum for a long time now sorry a lot of personality crises going on here in europe right now. political correspondent kate brady thank you so much. now it's june a time when many l.g.b. t. people around the globe hold pride events to cal