Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Thorsten Benner: Director of Berlin's Global Public Policy Institute on the outcome of Germany's snap election

Transcript

Thorsten Benner: Director of Berlin's Global Public Policy Institute on the outcome of Germany's snap election · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It has been a momentous twenty for ours in German
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: politics following these net federal elections. The Conservative Alliance is
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: once again the driving force, winning twenty eight point six
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: percent of the vote, and Frederick Metz is said to
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: be the new chancellor. But the question is who are
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: they going to form a coalition with. Thorston Benner is
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: the co founder and director of the Global Public Policy Institute.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: He's in Berlin and joins us Morning to you, Thorston.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Good morning, Andrew, Thanks for having me.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: How has it been you're in Germany. What are the
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  Speaker 1: people saying?
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  Speaker 2: Well, it depends on what the people's predilections are. Those
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: who love extreme right wing forces, they're over the moon
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: because every fifth German, more than twenty percent voarted for
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: a far right party, the so called alternative for Germany.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: There's the rest of the population, the eighty percent, they're
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: probably less happy about this. I have lots of friends
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: with a migrant background. We're thinking about maybe leaving Germany.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: If the AfD that established itself as the dominforce in
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: German politics in this election in all of Germany's East
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  Speaker 2: will kind of be let into let into power. So
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  Speaker 2: it's a sober. It's a it's a sober day for
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  Speaker 2: German politics. We've had this experiment one hundred years ago
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: didn't go so well, so most of the population still
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  Speaker 2: is not in for a rerun.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Right Well, Frederick Meetz has to form the coalition and
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  Speaker 1: he has actually already said he'd like to make a
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  Speaker 1: coalition with the Social Democrats. Now the problem there is
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  Speaker 1: the Social Democrats had a terrible election, got their worst result,
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  Speaker 1: and as you mentioned, the ad F, the Alternative for
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  Speaker 1: deutsch Land party, the right wing party, had a great election.
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  Speaker 1: So is Matz going to go with the Social Democrats
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  Speaker 1: or will.
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  Speaker 2: He that's the only that's the only option, basically, because
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  Speaker 2: the Christian Democrats have ruled out solemnly forming any sort
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  Speaker 2: of coalition or any sort of cohabitation with the far
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: right Alternative for Germany, So that only leaves him one option,
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: that is to go with the Social Democrats, which is
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  Speaker 2: one of the better outcomes because it's only a two
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  Speaker 2: party coalition that's necessary. So it was a nail bier
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  Speaker 2: in the early morning hours yesterday because because it was
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  Speaker 2: unclear whether some of the parties would make the five
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  Speaker 2: percent threshold in the end, two parties didn't make it,
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  Speaker 2: so that allows the SPDA and Fredrich Matz to form
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  Speaker 2: a coalition. The SBDA is not, you know, super happy
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: about it. They're licking their wounds. But I think given
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: you know, you need to look at what the security
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: situation Germany finds itself with the war at our doorstep,
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: where Donald Trump is pulling the rug from under our feet.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: So we need a government that is able, that is
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  Speaker 2: able to act, and I think in the end the
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  Speaker 2: Social Democrats will not. We'll kind of get over their
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: grief and join a coalition, but it may not be
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: an easy process getting there.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: Ok, Thorston, I thank you for your time. Thorston ben
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  Speaker 1: a co found a director of the Global Public Policy
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  Speaker 1: Institute in Berlin. And what will be interesting is once
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  Speaker 1: they form their coalition where the policies go. Because Frederick
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  Speaker 1: Metz over the course of the election said that he
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: was going to crack down a little bit more on immigration.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: And remember his party was Angela Merker's party, which had
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: an open immigration policy. So we'll wait to see for more.
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  Speaker 2: From early edition with Ryan Bridge.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: Listen live to News Talks it be from five am weekdays,
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio,