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Why are Germans rejecting mainstream parties · INSIGHT TODAY

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  Speaker 1: On the day after an unprecedented state election disaster for
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  Speaker 1: the German Chancellor's Conservative Party, Chancellor Merz is vowing to
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  Speaker 1: stay in office. On Sunday, the Conservative CDU party suffered
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  Speaker 1: defeats in two state elections. On Sunday, in the state
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  Speaker 1: of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the far-right AFD enjoyed another strong showing.
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  Speaker 1: And here in Berlin, it was the far-left Left Party
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  Speaker 1: that won the most votes. Sunday brings the total state
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  Speaker 1: election losses for the Chancellor's party this month to three.
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  Speaker 1: We have more in this report.
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  Speaker 2: A double blow for German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. Two state elections,
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  Speaker 2: two very different winners, and both of them a verdict
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  Speaker 2: on him. In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the far-right AfD won over
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  Speaker 2: 38 percent, its second victory in state elections in two weeks.
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  Speaker 2: Merz's center-right CDU took just 4.9 percent, its worst-ever result
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  Speaker 2: on the state and short of the 5 percent threshold
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  Speaker 2: required to get back into the state parliament. Taking stock
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  Speaker 2: on Monday, the chancellor recognized the serious blow to his party.
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  Speaker 3: This election marks a major turning point. It is a
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  Speaker 3: dramatic and unprecedented result for the CDU in Germany. It's
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  Speaker 3: a devastating signal for the CDU and that's why the
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  Speaker 3: Chancellor won't make it to the end of the year.
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  Speaker 4: The Chancellor's twilight has begun.
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  Speaker 3: In Berlin, voters swung the other way.
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  Speaker 4: The far-left-left party.
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  Speaker 2: Won with 25.7 percent, pushing the CDU out of government.
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  Speaker 2: They're set to lead the Berlin Senate for the first time.
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  Speaker 2: The left party, too, is taking the results as a
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  Speaker 2: signal to the federal government. Friedrich Merz must see this,
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  Speaker 2: the CDU must see it and the SPD, too. The
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  Speaker 2: policy of social cuts must come to an end. The
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  Speaker 2: important thing is there is a policy shift underway. The
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  Speaker 2: government must recognize that. Otherwise, they'll pay an even higher price.
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  Speaker 2: Pressure is also mounting on Chancellor Merz from within his
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  Speaker 2: own camp. But alternative leadership candidates are scarce.
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  Speaker 4: So we have a weakened chancellor, but a chancellor who
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  Speaker 4: wants to continue, especially with very unpopular reforms.
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  Speaker 3: Our coalition has made some real progress over the past
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  Speaker 3: 16 months. We know that this isn't enough yet, that
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  Speaker 3: we face major problems gaining public support, and that we
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  Speaker 3: are no longer reaching significant segments of the population. In
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  Speaker 3: this regard, I would like to talk to the Social
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  Speaker 3: Democrats about how we can work together. But I believe
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  Speaker 3: it is the right thing for us to continue working together.
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  Speaker 2: Both election winners came from the fringes. In both states,
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  Speaker 2: the parties of the political center lost ground, revealing an
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  Speaker 2: increasingly polarized Germany.
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  Speaker 4: This started with the AfD and now we see that
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  Speaker 4: the other parties react to this polarization differently. Not only ideologically,
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  Speaker 4: but we have especially what we call effective polarization because sentiments,
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  Speaker 4: emotions are much stronger.
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  Speaker 2: The dismal results could put pressure on the CDU to
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  Speaker 2: start looking for a new chancellor. For now, Friedrich Merz
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  Speaker 2: says he's determined to finish the job.
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  Speaker 1: All right, I want to bring in our political correspondent
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  Speaker 1: Hans Brandt. He was with us last night covering these elections. Hans,
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  Speaker 1: we have two regional elections in Germany, the far right
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  Speaker 1: winning one, the far left winning the other. What happened
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  Speaker 1: or what has happened to Germany's big tent centrist political parties?
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  Speaker 5: Yes, indeed. The centre cannot hold, you could say. People,
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  Speaker 5: voters are very concerned about their future. They feel insecure.
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  Speaker 5: They feel dissatisfied with the policies of the government, of
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  Speaker 5: the centrist parties, the governing coalition of the Christian Democrats
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  Speaker 5: and the Social Democrats. There is a war going on
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  Speaker 5: in Ukraine. Russian aggression against Ukraine has been going on
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  Speaker 5: for about four years, not more than about 2,000 kilometres
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  Speaker 5: east of here. There is a war going on in Iran.
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  Speaker 5: Prices are rising across the board. So people are feeling
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  Speaker 5: very insecure. And in this kind of situation, we've seen
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  Speaker 5: this elsewhere in the world, in the United States as well,
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  Speaker 5: people tend to go for.
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  Speaker 5: Political offerings that seem to offer clearer answers, that seem
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  Speaker 5: to speak a clearer language, that seem to offer easy solutions.
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  Speaker 5: And in Germany, that means right-wing or left-wing parties.
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  Speaker 1: Chancellor Merz's conservative CDU party did miserably last night, putting
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  Speaker 1: it that way. For the first time in post-war German history,
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  Speaker 1: the CDU does not have enough votes to get a
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  Speaker 1: single seat in a state parliament. Can the chancellor, with
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  Speaker 1: all of this happening on his watch, can he survive this?
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  Speaker 5: That's a big question. He really is under a lot
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  Speaker 5: of pressure. He said himself that the result was a disaster.
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  Speaker 5: And he spoke of what he now regards as a
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  Speaker 5: fact that his conservative party is no longer a party
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  Speaker 5: with a broad base across the population, no longer what
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  Speaker 5: in Germany is called a Volkspartei, a people's party. So
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  Speaker 5: he is very clear about, very, very surgical about the
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  Speaker 5: way he talks about this himself. He has said that
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  Speaker 5: he wants to continue as chancellor. He wants to continue
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  Speaker 5: as chairperson of this party, of the conservatives. He wants
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  Speaker 5: to finish the job of bringing new reforms to Germany's
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  Speaker 5: social security system. And at the moment, there is nobody
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  Speaker 5: openly in his party saying, planning his downfall, although there
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  Speaker 5: have been sections in various regions that have openly criticized him.
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  Speaker 5: But there have been secret meetings of top leadership without
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  Speaker 5: including Mautz, so his position certainly is not secure at
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  Speaker 5: the moment.
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  Speaker 1: Here in Berlin, the Conservatives lost the election to the
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  Speaker 1: far-left Left Party. Now, this means that the next mayor
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  Speaker 1: of Berlin could be from the Left Party. That would
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  Speaker 1: be a first. What are the implications of that?
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  Speaker 5: Yes, indeed. It wouldn't be the first time that the
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  Speaker 5: left party is part of a government here. They have
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  Speaker 5: been part of governing coalitions here in the past, but
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  Speaker 5: it would be the first time that they would have
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  Speaker 5: a mayor and it would also be the first time
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  Speaker 5: that a woman would be mayor, a woman president. who
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  Speaker 5: speaks Turkish from a Turkish background, that would also be
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  Speaker 5: a first. And, of course, the policies that this party
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  Speaker 5: proposes would also potentially change the face of Berlin quite substantially.
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  Speaker 5: But that is not secure at all at the moment.
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  Speaker 5: The left party still has to form a coalition with
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  Speaker 5: the environmentalist Greens and with the Social Democrats. Both of
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  Speaker 5: those parties are basically prepared for such a coalition, but
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  Speaker 5: they are not entirely agreed on the policies that the
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  Speaker 5: left party proposes, especially on housing, where the left party
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  Speaker 5: has said that it wants to expropriate housing. tens of
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  Speaker 5: thousands of apartments in Berlin in order to ease the
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  Speaker 5: housing crisis. The other two left-wing, also left parties, are
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  Speaker 5: not really that convinced of that proposal. And also there
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  Speaker 5: are questions about anti-Semitism within the left party that also
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  Speaker 5: would need to be cleared up.
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  Speaker 1: And I want to ask you about the far right party,
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  Speaker 1: the AFD as well, Hans. The party had a very
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  Speaker 1: strong showing last night in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
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  Speaker 1: That's just two weeks after basically winning the election in
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  Speaker 1: the state of Saxony-Anhalt. How significant is this basically this
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  Speaker 1: going from strength to strength for the far right party
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  Speaker 1: in Germany?
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  Speaker 5: It's very significant. It shows how strong the party has become.
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  Speaker 5: You have to say that both of these states we're
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  Speaker 5: talking about are in the eastern part of Germany, in
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  Speaker 5: former communist part of Germany, where protest votes have become
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  Speaker 5: ingrained in the last few years. Also regions where there
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  Speaker 5: are fewer voters, regions that are older, that are less well-educated,
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  Speaker 5: that are less diverse. But if you look at the polls,
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  Speaker 5: general polls in the last few weeks and months, The
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  Speaker 5: AfD is now the strongest party across Germany, according to
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  Speaker 5: those opinion polls, well over 20 percent. So it has
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  Speaker 5: become a party with a broad popular base in contrast
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  Speaker 5: to the Christian Democrats, in contrast to the conservatives. It's
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  Speaker 5: a problem for political parties across the spectrum in Germany.
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  Speaker 1: Our political correspondent Hans Brandt on the story for us tonight. Hans,
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  Speaker 1: as always, thank you.