In this episode, Andrew Sola and AFP journalist Christina Neuhaus discuss Germany's reaction to the US elections as well as the collapse of the German government.

Topics include the following:

-Public and private reactions to Trump's victory

-The reactions of all the different political parties, including BSW, AFD, die Linke, SPD, CDU, the Greens, and FDP

-Different policy issues that concern Germany and Europe, including Ukraine, trade, tariffs, and the climate

-The climate of predictable unpredictability that will characterize trans-Atlantic politics for the next four years

-The three paths that the EU and NATO might take in the future, including the Europe-first approach led by France, the Trump-adjacent approach led by Hungary, and the compromise approach led by Poland

-The reasons for the collapse of the coalition government in Berlin, namely the so-called debt brake, which is the constitutional rule preventing the government from accruing public debt

-The process of planning new elections

Lastly, they forecast the likely outcome of the elections, namely a coalition between the CDU and the SPD, with Friedrich Merz of the CDU as the new Chancellor in Berlin.

Check out Christina Neuhaus's excellent weekly podcast on current debates in the German Parliament (Bundestag) here:

https://unterderkuppel.de/