Deeper Dives - The CLC News Podcast: The German Election

Germans have been to the polls to elect their new Bundestag with the new governing coalition now in formation. (Image credit: Jorge Royan via Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons License)

Welcome to Deeper Dives - The CLC News Podcast - a podcast series that delves deeper into news stories from around the world, with insights from leading experts at the University of Cambridge. In this episode, News Editor, Louis Brettkelly, speaks with two affiliated lecturers at the University of Cambridge’s Faculty of German, Dr Darren O’Byrne and Dr Tara Talwar Windsor, about the results of the recent German federal election. 

Germans went to the polls in late September to elect their new Bundestag in the first election in 16 years without Angela Merkel. The Social Democratic Party (SPD) won the most seats with Merkel’s party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), falling behind with great losses. The governing coalition is currently in the process of formation and the new Chancellor will duly be chosen. 

In this episode, the results of this election and the prospects for Germany’s future are analysed in depth along with an exploration of the potential Chancellor candidates, German geographic divides and the popularity of the far-right, all with the expert opinion of Darren and Tara.