Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Alastair Bunkall: Sky News European Correspondent on Germany's far-right party AfD winning the state election in Saxony-Anhalt

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Alastair Bunkall: Sky News European Correspondent on Germany's far-right party AfD winning the state election in Saxony-Anhalt · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Let's go to Germany. Victory for Germany's far right. This
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: is just one state. This is just an election, but
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: it's quite significant for a number of reasons, and I'm
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: about to tell you why. First of all, let's go there.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: We have achieved exactly what we wanted. We have written history.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: People gave a clear political signal in this state. We
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: need a fundamentally different political approach, putting our own interests,
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: our own country first.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: So the far-right AFD has won 44% of the vote
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: in this area. Alistair Bunkle, Sky News Europe correspondent. Well, Alistair,
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: good morning.
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: Good morning, Ryan.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: So they still need friends, don't they, to actually have
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: a majority?
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  Speaker 3: Probably. I think there is the chance they could try
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: and govern as a minority, but even then they would
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: probably need an agreement with a party to make sure
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: that anything they wanted to pass through the state parliament
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: got them over the line. So yeah, you're right. I
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: think they probably do need to hook up with somebody.
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: There is a favourite candidate in that respect, and it's
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: a party called BSV, and they are far left, which
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: sounds probably like a total contradiction, the far right teaming
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: up with the far left. But actually... It's that kind
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: of anomaly of politics. The further right you go and
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: the further left you go, you actually start to join
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: up in the middle at some point. And they share
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: quite a lot of the same ideals and beliefs. So
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: it's possibly that could be the scenario.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: This is quite probably more than they were hoping they
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: would get. This is the AFD. Is this a shot
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  Speaker 1: across the bell to Mertz?
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: I'm sure they were hoping they would get a total majority,
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: but they were polling at around 42%. They ended up
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: getting 44%. Yeah, look, I mean, this is a very
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: good night for the AFD. And if you're an AFD supporter,
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: and clearly in this particular state where I'm now in Berlin,
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: but I was there over the last couple of days,
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: and I spent time over the last few weeks, clearly
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: they've got a lot of support there. You know, as
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: a state in East Germany... You know, I mean, if
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: you're going to pick one state that might vote right
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: wing and the AFD, then it probably would be this
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: one state. But if you look at the national picture,
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: they're not doing too badly either on the national picture. So, yeah,
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  Speaker 3: it is. I mean, yeah, it's a wake up for
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: the Chancellor Friedrich Merz. And, you know, he said today
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: in a press conference that he was shocked by the result.
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: You know, I think a lot of Germans would say
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: that really he should have woken up to it like
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: years ago. And he shouldn't be so shocked by it.
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: I mean, the polls have been showing for a long
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: time that the AFD were going to do well. And
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: you just test the mood on the streets. And it
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: was pretty clear that people are fed up with mainstream politics.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: What exactly are they fed up with? Excuse me. You know,
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: people have been saying this is the furthest right we've
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: been since the Nazis. But it's not the Nazi party, right?
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: What exactly do they want?
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: Well, I mean, different people have different grievances, and a
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: lot of the grievances they have are similar to what
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: you hear around other parts of the world. It's the
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: state of the economy, it's the state of the unemployment figures,
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: it is cost of living, for example. A lot of
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: these factors are driven by external events, like tariffs levied
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: by Donald Trump, like the war in Iran at the moment,
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: and the war in Ukraine, which has helped drive up
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: energy prices. So You could argue some of these are
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: slightly beyond the control of any one government. But there
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: is a problem with migration in Germany, at least as
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: perceived by Germans. I suppose the main figure that they
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: would point you at is when Angela Merkel, the previous chancellor,
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: allowed about a million Syrians during the crisis there to
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: come into Germany. And a lot of people, rightly or wrongly,
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: feel that if life is not that good in Germany
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  Speaker 3: for native Germans, then why should money be spent on outsiders,
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  Speaker 3: on foreigners coming in? Like it or not, that is
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: a pretty strongly held feeling here. And the fact is
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: that the traditional parties have failed to grasp it and
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  Speaker 3: deal with it. And so a lot of people are
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  Speaker 3: turning to AFD because like a lot of fringe parties
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  Speaker 3: and right-wing parties, they promise a lot. It's another question
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  Speaker 3: as to whether or not they can deliver.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: Alistair, great analysis. Thank you very much for being with us.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: Alistair Bunkle, a Sky News Europe correspondent.