Bushati-Martens in "Public Square": We believe in distrust

2025-04-12 10:28:00, Politikë CNA

Ditmir Bushati in his next Podcast "Public Square" discusses the parliamentary elections in Germany which did not produce any surprises.

According to him, it was more or less known that the CDU, led by Friedrich Merz, would take first place, just as it was also known that the Social Democrats were going through a difficult period. What made them take third place for the first time in history, since the founding of this party. It is striking that the far-right party and the far-left party have scored a better result compared to the previous elections. Internally, Bushati continues, Germany will continue to have a grand coalition, even though the traditional grand coalition between the CDU/CSU on the one hand, and the Social Democrats on the other, is no longer so large in terms of votes and popular support, as a result of the new dynamics on the German political scene.

Germany is the country with the main economic weight in the European Union, the third largest economy in the world, and with an indisputable impact on the European scene, especially in the conditions that our continent is facing, as a result of the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Bushati conducts this conversation with Michael Martens, a very experienced journalist from Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, who covers the countries of Southeast Europe. They touch on important issues related to the policy of the new German government for the Western Balkans, whether we will have an enlargement of the European Union with the countries of the Western Balkans during the mandate of the new German government. But also what will be the focus of Germany and Chancellor Merz in terms of consolidating the European project, given the new situation and new relations between the US and the EU. They also dwell on the possible influence of the Trump administration to encourage the EU, and thus Germany, as the main locomotive of the EU, to clarify once and for all the objectives of the European project, and to consolidate it?

"The results were not very unexpected. They were more or less what we expected according to the polls. We knew that the CDU, the conservatives led by Friedrich Merz, would be the strongest party. We knew that the Social Democrats of the incumbent Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, would lose a lot ," Martens said./ CNA