00:00Things have gone from bad to worse, to worse again for the German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
00:04After a crushing defeat to the far-right Alternative for Deutschland on September the 6th in Saxony-Anhalt,
00:09his party, the CDU, just lost another two state elections.
00:13The first here in Berlin and the second on the Baltic coast in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania.
00:17But it wasn't just a loss.
00:19In the words of the Chancellor himself, it was a disaster.
00:22It's the worst the CDU has ever done since the end of the Second World War in a state election.
00:26And since they failed to clear the 5% minimum threshold, that means that Merz's party now has zero seats
00:32in the state parliament.
00:33He spent the weekend showing up support with his own party.
00:36And in a press conference following the election, the Chancellor says he still retains his party support.
00:41Although economic indicators have been improving in recent months, it's fallen short of a major turnaround in Germany.
00:46And it's probably been overshadowed by the massive cuts in the nation's all-important auto industry that have been announced.
00:51The good news is reserved for the far-right Alternative for Deutschland, who won in Meck-Pom.
00:55And the communist adjacent Die Linke, who won here in Berlin.
00:58But those elections tell a bigger story in Germany, and indeed a bigger story across Europe.
01:02It's not just about the rise of the far-right.
01:04It's a story of severe political fragmentation in the face of increasing headwinds in the continent.
01:09And as Friedrich Merz picks up the pieces, he remains in an uncomfortable coalition with the center-left and some
01:15very tough reforms still ahead.
01:16That leaves the ingredients for continued political paralysis.
01:20And it is exactly that political paralysis that brought down the German government less than two years ago.
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