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00:00:00France live on France
00:00:0224,
00:00:06it's 8pm here in Paris, good evening to
00:00:08Stay with us, "Au Cœur de l'Info" continues in a few all and welcome if you're joining us on France 24 for the rest of "Au Cœur de l'Info", here
00:00:11are the main headlines of this Sunday. A
00:00:14disaster, the words of the German Chancellor to describe the
00:00:17result of his party in the state of Mecklenburg, Western
00:00:21Pomerania, the far-right party AFD comes out on top,
00:00:24credited with 37 to 38 % of the votes, 20 points more
00:00:28than in 2021, the SPD would be around 36%, the
00:00:32CDU is plummeting to
00:00:35where the former eastern districts barely more than 5 %. Another setback in Berlin where
00:00:39it is the radical left party Die Linke that wins, success
00:00:42also in Berlin for the AFD which will reach between 13 and 16
00:00:46% of the votes against 9 % in 2023. Chancellor
00:00:49Merz says he takes his responsibilities and promises to
00:00:52continue the reforms underway. We'll join our correspondent
00:00:56Caroline
00:00:58political and economic level in terms of Duble in Berlin and then we'll also talk about it with. from the heart of the news tonight,
00:01:01janettezus.
00:01:053rd and last day of the legislative elections in Russia, marked this
00:01:09Sunday by massive cyberattacks and a rain of Ukrainian
00:01:12drones. At least two people were killed, about twenty injured
00:01:16according to Russian authorities. Moscow warns that attacks on
00:01:20Kyiv will intensify in
00:01:23allowances, unemployment, retaliation. And then the 43rd edition of the
00:01:26European Heritage Days, some 11 million... councils participate
00:01:30each year, an opportunity to discover exceptional sites
00:01:34usually closed to the general public, and among the curiosities to see
00:01:38this year a replica of the Jambart warship of Louis XIV that
00:01:41enthusiasts have been building for more than 20 years in
00:01:45northern France.
00:01:54CDU uh and within
00:01:592 weeks after the... triumph of the AfD in Saxony, the
00:02:02results of Sunday's regional elections in Berlin and Mecklenburg
00:02:06Western Pomerania confirm the very strong rise of the far-right, it
00:02:10thus comes out on top in Mecklenburg with 37
00:02:13to 38% of the votes, 20 points more than in 2021, the SPD
00:02:17would be around 36%, the CDU is
00:02:20plummeting to barely more than 5 %. And another setback for
00:02:24the CDU, this time in Berlin where it is the radical left party Die Linke that
00:02:27wins and success there too for the AFD. which would reach between 13 and
00:02:3116% of the votes, Chancellor Fredrik Schmerz
00:02:35speaks of disaster and says he takes his
00:02:37responsibility, he promises to continue his reforms, we
00:02:41will listen to the German
00:02:42Chancellor.
00:02:46We cannot sugarcoat the result obtained in Mecklenburg, it is a
00:02:49disaster.
00:02:52The CDU fought, but it ended up being crushed in
00:02:56the growing confrontation between the SPD and the AFD.
00:03:01Trust in our institutions is eroding, actively
00:03:04undermined by radical parties on the left and
00:03:06right. Our response to this situation must
00:03:10be to prepare the future of our country. To
00:03:15region, a southern region of achieve this, we need change.
00:03:20killed several people, including an employee of support of Germany for Change requires effort, but reforms must move forward.
00:03:23Indeed, we are in a difficult
00:03:25situation, but we
00:03:28%. hmm so we talked a lot about the take responsibility for these reforms. I personally take this
00:03:32responsibility because I want to see our country
00:03:35move forward, and we join our correspondent
00:03:39Caroline Duble in Berlin, good evening
00:03:41Caroline, the results therefore confirm what was
00:03:45expected, namely a very strong rise of the far-right,
00:03:48the AFD in these two regional
00:03:50elections.
00:03:55Mecklenburg and these areas of eastern Yes, absolutely and especially in Mecklenburg -Vorpommern where the socialist candidate
00:03:59seemed to have. her lead was credited with one more point in the polls
00:04:02these last few days, but that was not enough, it is indeed the AFD that once
00:04:07that also explains this success of again wins a region, well, it is the first
00:04:09party in a region, because this victory does not mean that they will
00:04:13be able to form a government due to the sanitary
00:04:17cordon that the other parties have pledged to respect, that is to say
00:04:22indicators of to refuse any coalition with the AFD, so there you go, but nevertheless, they are indeed
00:04:2620 points higher than in the last elections, this
00:04:29is the... third time that they are the leading party in regional
00:04:33elections, three times in regions
00:04:36focused on the fight against of former East Germany and in Berlin too, they
00:04:39are up 4 points compared to the previous
00:04:43elections, behind neck and neck with the Greens
00:04:47still for 3rd place and behind Die Linke, the far-left,
00:04:50which wins this election in
00:04:54Berlin, the CDU with 20 points is
00:04:57also down, yes, and it is a real debacle therefore
00:05:02this success of the AFD which is definitely for the CDU, German Chancellor
00:05:04spokesperson for Eastern voters Fredrik Schmerz spoke immediately after the announcement of the
00:05:07results, the first partial results, exit polls, he said he took his share
00:05:10of responsibility in
00:05:14this debacle which he qualified as a disaster, nevertheless he
00:05:17did not announce, as some expected, his resignation, he
00:05:21undertakes on the other hand to continue, he says, his reforms, hm
00:05:24hm,
00:05:28absolutely, he called on Germans to be patient, to be
00:05:32firm, he wants to continue his
00:05:35course of reform, he says this is the answer
00:05:39against against the extremes, against this crisis of confidence also in... institutions
00:05:42and he seems especially with this speech seems
00:05:46to want to give
00:05:48to put an end to the rumors that
00:05:52circulated in Germany these last few days, there were already names of potential
00:05:56replacements circulating but no, he is really ready
00:05:59to take his responsibility, to continue the
00:06:02reforms, he therefore remains Chancellor and head of the
00:06:06CDU and calls on the
00:06:09Germans to confront the difficulties to come... that
00:06:12these reforms will bring with them but to
00:06:16keep the course, according to him, it is the only possible answer
00:06:20to the challenges of our time. thank you very much Caroline,
00:06:23from Berlin and we will talk about the outcome of
00:06:27this double regional election in Germany with the guest of "Au cœur de l'info" this
00:06:30evening, Janette Zous, member of the study committee on Franco-German
00:06:34relations at Ifri, the French institute of international relations,
00:06:37good evening, thank you very much for being with us this evening on France 24 to comment
00:06:41therefore on these results which are still partial, in any case
00:06:45a photograph of what seems to be emerging this
00:06:49evening in Germany, namely mainly this very strong
00:06:52push, right, of the far-right 2 weeks after
00:06:55this historic victory of the AFD in Sax Anhalt
00:06:58a particularly strong push therefore in
00:07:02Mecklenburg, another territory of former East Germany where
00:07:05there the AFD wins, mm-hmm. indeed, we
00:07:09expected a score in those areas. So finally no big
00:07:13surprises following the polls, but for the
00:07:17CDU, as you said recently, it's
00:07:20really a major setback, a disaster as the
00:07:24Chancellor Merkel says, and so we are really in the low range of the polls
00:07:27where the CDU is floundering around and that too is a
00:07:30peculiarity of the German political system around this minimum
00:07:34threshold that must be crossed in fact to be
00:07:36represented and they would be barely above if they
00:07:40are finally below wait.
00:07:45catastrophic, they would therefore be excluded from the regional parliament and that would be
00:07:48a first, yes, that would be completely a first,
00:07:52after that it's not exactly like in Saxony-Anhalt
00:07:56because there we saw the advantage of the incumbent, in fact, of this
00:07:59candidate who is therefore the former Minister-President
00:08:03of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Manuela Schwesig
00:08:07who can still benefit from a fairly
00:08:10strong popularity rating. Which was much less the case in Saxony-Anhalt with the
00:08:14counter-candidate of Holger Zickmantel, but each state has its
00:08:18own specificities anyway, I don't know, we'll perhaps come back to Berlin, there
00:08:21again a very different clientele, so it's true that each state is
00:08:25different, but we still see a trend towards a clear rise of
00:08:29this party which is the Alternative for Germany with its own
00:08:32causes, in Mecklenburg, we will obviously come back to it,
00:08:36but go ahead on Berlin, a strong surge also there
00:08:40of the AFD which would be between 13 and 16% against 9
00:08:44% if I'm not mistaken in 2000 in
00:08:472023, there too it's uh it's not surprising,
00:08:51yes, well it's true that the progression there is a little bit more relative, a
00:08:54little bit lower because we are facing a more urban, more
00:08:58cosmopolitan environment perhaps, so far-right ideas
00:09:01perhaps take hold a little less even if it must also be said that this is the strategy
00:09:05also of the AFD, this double strategy of normalization, a certain
00:09:08tie strategy, the figurehead Christine Brinck was
00:09:12had much much less radical remarks and that is
00:09:16also reflected in the program that
00:09:20absolutely, he has different wings within the party,
00:09:23Sigmund himself in Saxony-Anhalt truly
00:09:27more radical even if he personally was even part of the CDU at
00:09:30the time, but he has in his entourage personalities who
00:09:34even passed for neo-Nazis, that also applies to the
00:09:38AFD candidate in
00:09:40Western Pomerania, Eric Holm. But that's not the case for Christine
00:09:44Brinker in Berlin, for example, so it varies depending on the state,
00:09:48but the AFD, it will be necessary to see depending on the
00:09:51constituencies, depending on the districts in Berlin, because we do not yet have the results
00:09:54according to the districts, the AFD will be around 50 or
00:09:5840% in some districts, while in others
00:10:01it will almost be non-existent, so a high
00:10:04fragmentation also polarization of this
00:10:08vote within Berlin. We will therefore talk
00:10:11about the reasons for
00:10:15on the rise, but first we heard Chancellor Fredrik
00:10:18Schmerz say, well, speak of catastrophe, of disaster,
00:10:22say that he took his responsibilities, well, finally he did not resign. While
00:10:25many thought that after this speech and this crisis meeting
00:10:29at the CDU headquarters he would announce it in view
00:10:33of the results, he says on the other hand that he will
00:10:36continue his reforms, what did you find of
00:10:40this, yes, well first of all it must be remembered that it is completely
00:10:43unprecedented and not necessarily something unusual if a chancellor
00:10:47speaks after the results of regional elections
00:10:50because normally each state does its own thing and it's
00:10:54not ch'.
00:10:57uh in itself no, even if of course the Länder play a role within the
00:11:00Bundesrat which is the equivalent of the Senate, except that it has much more
00:11:04weight in Germany, so the second chamber that makes laws, so we
00:11:08can change something there, but it's not a total
00:11:11reversal of national policy right away, the
00:11:15government was elected until 2029, so the
00:11:18mandate has barely begun, his argument
00:11:22is that these structural reforms that...
00:11:25uh started well, it takes time and it was also
00:11:28corroborated by the vice chancellor, the finance minister Las
00:11:32Klingbeil, who himself comes from the SPD, so the
00:11:36social democrats, who seems to continue this
00:11:39rather liberal path, I would say, of making
00:11:42budget cuts but also cutting into the welfare state, into
00:11:46family
00:11:48and so on. This defeat of the CDU is a
00:11:52personal debacle, you said, for Schmerz or a
00:11:55broader crisis of the party, an ideological crisis,
00:11:59well, it's generally a structural problem that the CDU has
00:12:03which may have been exacerbated by the performance which is
00:12:06judged very mediocre probably by the electorate
00:12:10of Friedrich Merz, but the CDU itself faces a really
00:12:13structural problem, namely that it shifts to the right on
00:12:17the narrative level, so it partially adopts certain
00:12:21demands that the far-right had on immigration, that's a lot.
00:12:25It has become more right-wing and at the same time in practice it must always enter
00:12:28into a coalition with a partner who is rather from the
00:12:31left, so whether it is the SPD which is of course center-left or there
00:12:35it will be a question of entering into a coalition even with
00:12:39Die Linke possibly or with other parties of the more
00:12:41radical political spectrum or at least
00:12:45the Greens too, so it's getting less and less easy to form a
00:12:49stable government with only two parties where the CDU can really
00:12:52assert itself, so the electorate votes for something. for a rather right-wing electoral program
00:12:56but ends up with rather left-wing governments and that's it and that's what
00:12:59the AFD
00:13:03in fact criticizes the current government for when
00:13:06it lies in some way to the voters and that only with the AFD will
00:13:10there be a real right-wing program except that at the same time the AFD
00:13:13renounces any type of coalition, of making compromises
00:13:17but Fredrik Schmerz was still personally attacked
00:13:2088% of Germans are dissatisfied according
00:13:24to the... polls, yes, it's unprecedented indeed,
00:13:28he has a way of presenting things a bit
00:13:31gloomy, let's say, so some, well,
00:13:35perhaps lack optimism in a time that is in any case not easy on the
00:13:38international level, of course, with the massive
00:13:42Ukraine, which is something that is more and more contested, which the AFD
00:13:46contests and notably in this region of former East Germany, we must also remember a
00:13:50more pacifist culture and a reluctance towards this support, but
00:13:54it also really has this economic aspect with therefore an
00:13:57image of Germany in full transformation on the industrial
00:14:01level of its industrial model on the economic level with a
00:14:04situation of decline uh and so the German model which is a bit
00:14:08questioned and the CDU which has always been considered the party for
00:14:12the economy for economic recovery but which is slow to
00:14:15come. You mentioned uh therefore
00:14:20Germany, former East Germany, uh you
00:14:23spoke of the problems. economic problems felt by the population
00:14:27there, it's a persistent feeling of decline
00:14:32the AFD, well I was talking about the economic situation in
00:14:36the whole country, so it's already a situation that's not, well, a bit in
00:14:39decline for the whole country, but it is true that when we look again
00:14:43at the figures, the macro-economic
00:14:47former East Germany compared to the western parts,
00:14:51things have improved a lot, for example unemployment, of course it was around
00:14:5520% after the reunification, but there is still this
00:14:58feeling of decline, but it's not only an economic feeling, it's notably
00:15:02a feeling of not being sufficiently represented, of not being
00:15:05sufficiently heard, and it was notably, some even speak of
00:15:09contempt from West Germans, there is a
00:15:13somewhat anti-establishment trend and it is on that that the AFD manages to
00:15:16capitalize in particular while the party was rather founded in
00:15:20the West, which is interesting, but it has a bit, it
00:15:23acts a bit... it has become a party that is a kind of
00:15:29by also playing on nostalgia, so
00:15:32this nostalgic feeling of
00:15:36the good old days, saying that
00:15:39we are returning to the good old Germany where it was
00:15:43good to live and so it's really a bit of a topsy-turvy
00:15:47world but it manages to capitalize on this feeling indeed
00:15:50you would speak of a two-speed Germany still today
00:15:5340 years after reunification we clearly see a clear gap
00:15:57politically, economically
00:16:01still apparently the fragmentation and
00:16:04polarization of the debate does not help to
00:16:07reconcile the people and we also see it in Berlin
00:16:12vote differently than the western part, so even within the same city
00:16:16where one might think that things have harmonized
00:16:20this is not the case, so it is also a task that the
00:16:23government now has to to maybe
00:16:27have a different communication strategy but also
00:16:30to have what can we deploy as a strategy also on the
00:16:36representation also. political of these people uh to
00:16:40change things, until now all parties have refused to
00:16:44govern with the far-right, with the AFD, so in
00:16:47Germany, if I'm not mistaken, we don't speak of a sanitary cordon but of a firewall,
00:16:51is that right? Can this wall
00:16:54fall, in your opinion, that's the whole question, for now it's not
00:16:58falling, it's out of the question, even on TV
00:17:01but it's especially for the CDU that the question arises,
00:17:05of course, because the AFD sees in the CDU the coalition
00:17:09partner, well, almost the only possible coalition partner
00:17:11uh the CDU has what is called a list
00:17:15of incompatibilities and it includes the AFD but also Die Linke, this
00:17:19more radical left-wing party and
00:17:22as long as it doesn't change that even on a legal level if you
00:17:24will, it cannot enter into a coalition but of course
00:17:28there are voices even within the
00:17:31the AFD notably of course for a
00:17:34coalition between the CDU and the FD, we are not
00:17:38yet at that stage, for that, the AFD would have to normalize
00:17:41itself further and really distance itself from remarks that were
00:17:45even made during this neo-fascist
00:17:48campaign, about the relativization of national
00:17:52socialism, uh would you say that Saxony-Anhalt in the end
00:17:56was a laboratory and is everything that happened therefore in
00:17:59Saxony-Anhalt but also today in Mecklenburg
00:18:02Western Pomerania a warning for the rest of the country
00:18:06absolutely. really the question whether the AFD will be able
00:18:10to govern because it is also a real test of credibility for the country, so if
00:18:14it ever fails it could also have a domino
00:18:16effect, in this case negative for other states, but if
00:18:20it manages to, it has already won the elections but to form a
00:18:24stable government, that could in
00:18:26turn have a positive domino effect, so
00:18:30everything remains to be seen, but it can
00:18:33also rely, if it fails to govern, on this
00:18:36victim positioning. So that's also a
00:18:40victimization strategy, anyway, the others don't want to govern
00:18:43with us, it's not our fault, so that makes the AFD
00:18:47rise even more in the future and once we are
00:18:50ready, we take over the government, so it's true that it's still a little early for the
00:18:54party and I think the party did not expect such a result, especially in
00:18:57Saxony-Anhalt where it really came very close
00:19:00to this symbolic bar of 5
00:19:06AFD and the CDU, and the other
00:19:09traditional party, the SPD,
00:19:12also losing momentum, absolutely,
00:19:15and that's a bit the irony of fate, so to speak, is that the
00:19:19SPD often finds itself in governments even though it was
00:19:22sanctioned during the elections, this is likely
00:19:26to be the case in Berlin where it's not clear
00:19:29it's first, it would probably be Die Linke who could therefore lead the
00:19:33government but it would therefore be among the
00:19:36coalition partners. And that would of course also be the case
00:19:39in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, so what I find a bit
00:19:43curious is that the victory, in a way,
00:19:46of Manuela Schwesig, the SPD in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern,
00:19:50presented itself as a victory even though the SPD has further decreased compared
00:19:54to its previous result, so just facing the
00:19:57AFD and not having a much
00:20:00lower result is considered a victory in
00:20:04itself, so the problem is that this debate hides a bit
00:20:08the real underlying debates and it is a campaign
00:20:11entirely
00:20:14the AFD, but we still talk relatively little about the real issues
00:20:18and what really occupies the electorate, perhaps a
00:20:21last question, do you think that the result of this
00:20:25double regional election therefore with national implications,
00:20:28as you well reminded, will perhaps modify somewhat Germany's
00:20:32position regarding this famous aid to
00:20:35Ukraine which is contested by a part
00:20:38of the German population and in this case by the AFD voters?
00:20:42I don't think so at this stage, but of course, it
00:20:45is necessary to find some answers and to better communicate
00:20:49why... this support is necessary, but
00:20:52I think it's really something extremely important for Germany
00:20:56to show solidarity with Ukraine and for
00:20:59now I don't see a questioning of this policy, but in the
00:21:03medium to long term, if the war continues, it could
00:21:07represent a growing challenge, after that it must be remembered that this
00:21:10electorate also of former East Germany in terms of population percentage
00:21:13is a minority of course, so it won't
00:21:17completely change the political balance but it remains a full
00:21:20challenge for the country, thank you very much Janette Zous,
00:21:24for answering our questions this evening therefore after this double
00:21:28regional election in Germany
00:21:31so I remind you in Berlin and in Mecklenburg
00:21:34Western Pomerania which therefore confirms the very strong
00:21:38rise of the far-right AFD which therefore comes out on
00:21:41top in Mecklenburg Western Pomerania credited with
00:21:4537 to 38% of the votes, that's 20 points more than in
00:21:482021. And it's a real debacle, we can say
00:21:52for the CDU, Chancellor Matz speaks of
00:21:56catastrophe, he says he takes his responsibility and promises to
00:21:59continue his reforms. Thank you again Jannetz for
00:22:03answering our questions this evening, we
00:22:06now go to Russia, 3rd and last day of the
00:22:10legislative elections which were marked this Sunday by massive
00:22:13cyberattacks and a rain of Ukrainian drones, at least
00:22:17two people were killed and about twenty injured. This is according
00:22:20to Russian authorities, whatever the case, the election has no stakes,
00:22:24the presidential party United Russia is assured of its
00:22:27victory and moreover preliminary results are being
00:22:31released by the Russian electoral commission, with no surprise
00:22:34obviously, the United Russia party is leading with
00:22:3857.54 % of the votes, knowing that there is
00:22:42no real credible opposition in the
00:22:51unprecedented Ukrainian offensive. The Russian capital and its region were the
00:22:55target of several hundred Ukrainian drones, if most were
00:22:58intercepted and shot down, several escaped Russian anti-aircraft
00:23:01defense and notably struck several floors of a residential
00:23:05building in the capital or this oil
00:23:08refinery. Other devices fell in this residential
00:23:11area of Sofino in the Moscow region, causing significant
00:23:15casualties and damage.
00:23:16building, I had walked about twenty steps from
00:23:20the entrance when the explosion
00:23:24occurred, the windows shattered, people started screaming, I turned
00:23:27around, the front doors had been blown open, there were
00:23:31injured people, probably even fatally, but we cannot be
00:23:34sure, emergency services arrived on the scene, they did not let us
00:23:38approach, this massive Ukrainian drone attack
00:23:42comes in a context of intensifying fighting on both
00:23:45sides, a series of Russian strikes on more than 30 sites in the Kyiv
00:23:49region caused several deaths, including children, on Saturday and
00:23:52Sunday. This offensive also comes on the 3rd
00:23:55and last day of voting in Russia and has been denounced by the Russian
00:23:59authorities as aiming to disrupt the smooth running of the
00:24:02election. In the Kherson
00:24:05Ukraine controlled by Russia, a drone notably
00:24:10the electoral commission. More than 4
00:24:12and a half years after the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in
00:24:152022, these legislative elections aim to renew the
00:24:19Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, in a context of
00:24:22repression of all forms of opposition, they should
00:24:25unsurprisingly result in the victory of Vladimir Putin's
00:24:29party.
00:24:3143rd edition of the European Heritage Days, some
00:24:3511 million French people participate every year, an opportunity to
00:24:38discover exceptional sites usually closed to the general
00:24:42public, and among the curiosities to see this year a replica of the Jambart
00:24:45warship of Louis XIV that enthusiasts have been building for more than
00:24:56sea monster, it is an ancient ogre of the
00:25:00seas, the Jambard, a mythical ship. It
00:25:03has been almost 25 years since artisans have been striving to reproduce it
00:25:07and to highlight ancient techniques. The main interest of the site is
00:25:11to come and discover the construction of the ship with the old
00:25:14trades, so forging for example, naval carpentry which are the two trades that are most
00:25:18exploited today and to have children who come with schools, to have people who
00:25:22come to visit and this pedagogical transmission of old
00:25:25trades, in its construction engravings like these serve
00:25:29as an example and let us guess the scale of a boat and its
00:25:32gigantic hull of 57 m, dimensions
00:25:35that look like a challenge for these volunteers. The smallest piece weighs about
00:25:39600 kg, these are the pieces above us there that are part of the
00:25:42skeleton, so today we have modern tools, it's true
00:25:46that we have big cranes, tractors, but you have to think about the time when... that by
00:25:50hand, a ship worthy of the king who
00:25:54sailed it, Louis XIV himself, in a few
00:25:57years it will be the largest navigable wooden sailing ship in the
00:26:01world, yet it... will never go to sea,
00:26:04a conscious choice to allow everyone the leisure to
00:26:07contemplate it.
00:26:11minutes, see you
00:26:13soon.
00:26:18soon.
00:26:32Leo XIV pontifical visit to France,
00:26:36live on France 24,
00:28:19said this is illegal, a judge said this is illegal and this is continuing on. Ice is very
00:28:22opaque about its intentions to remove people to
00:28:25third countries. I think that it's fair to say that
00:28:29everybody is running a little scared of the US.
00:29:48From Friday to Sunday, don't miss the essential weekend
00:29:51presented by Marion Gaudin, to know everything,
00:29:55to better understand, I give you an appointment every weekend to
00:29:58share the essential news on France 24.
00:30:05It's 8:30 PM here in Paris, good evening everyone and welcome if you're joining us for the
00:30:09continuation of "Au Cœur de l'Info", here are the main headlines for this Sunday, a
00:30:13catastrophe, the words of the German Chancellor to describe the result
00:30:16of his party in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern,
00:30:19the far-right party AfD comes out on top,
00:30:23credited with 37 to 38% of the votes, 20 points more than in
00:30:262021, the SPD would be around 36%, the
00:30:30CDU plummets. barely
00:30:33above 5% at this stage, another setback
00:30:37in Berlin, it's the radical left party Die Linke that
00:30:40wins, also a success for the AfD in Berlin which will reach between
00:30:4413 and 16% of the votes against 9% in
00:30:472023. Chancellor Merz spoke immediately
00:30:50after these results, he said he took responsibility and promised
00:30:54to continue his reforms, more details in a moment
00:30:57from Caroline Duble in Berlin.