00:00One word has been shaping German politics for a while now.
00:04Brandmauer. Firewall.
00:06It's the unwritten rule that says no one works with the far-right party AFD. Ever.
00:12But that rule is starting to crack.
00:15The AFD, Germany's far-right populist party, has 150 seats in the German parliament.
00:21Around 20%.
00:23In theory, they should chair committees and hold leadership positions.
00:26In practice, they are blocked at every turn.
00:30The other parties won't vote for their nominees, won't back their motions, won't give them an inch,
00:35because they consider the AFD to be opposed to democratic values.
00:39The thing is, support for the AFD keeps growing.
00:42And more and more people are asking, can you really shut out a party that 1 in 5 voted for?
00:48In the east of the country, it's even closer to 1 in 2.
00:51Which brings us to Gartz.
00:52It's a small town on the Polish border, 80 kilometers from Berlin.
00:57One in two people here voted AFD in the federal election.
01:00However, in municipal elections, it was Luca Pivoda, an independent progressive candidate, who came out on top.
01:06At 25, he is now the mayor of the town.
01:09Unlike most of his counterparts elsewhere in Germany, he decided to break the taboo and work with local AFD politicians.
01:27So how does it work? Two of his council members are in the AFD.
01:32But for Pivoda, what matters is the ideas they bring to the table to solve local problems, not their party
01:38membership.
01:39In fact, the AFD is not even Pivodas concern, it's rather the notable absence of all the other parties.
02:00Pivoda isn't alone. Across eastern Germany, local politicians are reaching the same conclusion.
02:06Yes, the firewall holds in Berlin, but on the ground, it's a luxury they can't afford.
02:12And whether that's pragmatism or a warning sign, Germany hasn't decided yet.
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