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Welcome to the inaugural episode of Searching for Deutschland, a new podcast by ECFR exploring the European and foreign policy dimensions of the German election on February 23rd. Hosts Jeremy Cliffe and Jana Puglierin join Mark Leonard, ECFR's director, for a World in 30 Minutes [AS1] crossover to discuss their plans for the coming weeks and the premise of the podcast, namely: has Germany gone missing from its European leadership role?

The hosts also discuss Friedrich Merz, chancellor candidate of the centre-right CDU party and front-runner to lead Germany’s next government. What are Merz's foreign policy influences and instincts? What will this mean for Germany's role in Europe and the world?

Read Jana's and Jeremy's commentary on the “Merz doctrine” here.

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With President Donald Trump and his threat of sweeping tariffs looming large over the German election campaign, co-hosts Jeremy Cliffe and Jana Puglierin discuss the latest from the campaign trail before welcoming Tobias Gehrke and Daniela Schwarzer to discuss how Trump's tariffs could affect Germany—and how the country should respond. Could this development impact the election? And what does it mean for the future of the German economic model?

Guests:

Tobias Gehrke, senior policy fellow at ECFR

Daniela Schwarzer, executive board member of the Bertelsmann Foundation and ECFR council member

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Germany's industrial model thrived for years thanks to soaring Chinese demand. But the relationship has recently become more contentious. This week, hosts Jeremy Cliffe and Jana Puglierin are joined by Janka Oertel to discuss the future impact of political and economic divisions over Germany's China policy. And another topic, hot off the press, is Friedrich Merz's controversial decision to pass votes on asylum and migration with the support of the far-right AfD. How might this influence the election result?

Guests:

Janka Oertel, ECFR Asia programme director and senior policy fellow, and author of Ende der China Illusion

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This week, hosts Jeremy Cliffe and Jana Puglierin discuss German election campaign frontrunner Friedrich Merz's bid to win Bundestag votes on migration with support from the far-right AfD. Political scientist Marcel Lewandowsky joins the podcast to discuss the apparent rise of Euroscepticism in Germany: does Merz's gambit mean his CDU envisions a more unilateral Germany in Europe? What’s behind the rise of the AfD and the anti-establishment BSW? And is Germany's turn towards forms of Euroscepticism part of a wider European trend—or a distinct (and distinctly alarming) phenomenon? 

Guests:

Marcel Lewandowsky, lecturer at the Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz and author of the 2024 book Was Populisten Wollen (What Populists Want).

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Ahead of the Munich Security Conference, hosts Jeremy Cliffe and Jana Puglierin talk German defence and the future of the country's armed forces. They review the first televised debate between Olaf Scholz and Friedrich Merz and discuss new ECFR polling, which illustrates German pessimism about Europe's future. ECFR colleagues Ulrike Franke and Rafael Loss also join the podcast to ask whether Scholz's proclaimed Zeitenwende, or turning point, has translated into real improvements in Germany's frayed armed forces. Together, they review the main parties’ defence policies and look ahead to the next four years. 

ECFR's new polling on European views of their continent and the world in the new Trump era is here.

Listeners can sign up for a live webinar reviewing the election results on the morning after Germany's polling day here.

Guests:

Ulrike Franke is senior policy fellow at ECFR and co-host of the German-language security podcast, Sicherheitshalber

Rafael Loss is policy fellow at ECFR, focusing on security and defence in the Euro-Atlantic area

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In Searching for Deutschland’s last pre-election episode, hosts Jeremy Cliffe and Jana Puglierin review the Munich Security Conference, the US-Russia talks on Ukraine, and what the new era in transatlantic relations means for Germany and its next government. They also look ahead to Germany's polling day on 23rd February, before Moritz Gathmann and Gustav Gressel join them to discuss German support for Ukraine in the face of an unfavourable Trump-Putin deal—and how this intersects with domestic politics.

Find ECFR’s polling report on European views of their continent and the world in the new Trump era, co-authored by Jana Puglierin, here.

Find Jeremy Cliffe's commentary on Germany's “ominous” election campaign here.

Listeners can sign up for a live webinar reviewing the election results on the morning after Germany’s polling day here.

Guests:

Moritz Gathmann is a reporter for the German news magazine Stern and has reported widely on the US, Russia and German foreign policy.

Gustav Gressel is an ECFR alumnus and former senior policy fellow. He is an expert on Russia, eastern Europe and defence policy.

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On the morning after Germany's election, Searching for Deutschland hosts Jeremy Cliffe and Jana Puglierin were joined for a live webinar by ECFR colleagues Timo Lochocki and Janka Oertel. They discussed the results; prospects of a coalition between the CDU/CSU and SPD; likely chancellor Friedrich Merz's direction on China, the EU and the US; and the AfD and Left parties’ new “blocking minority” role, before taking questions from viewers.

This “election special” episode of Searching for Deutschland features a full recording of this morning’s webinar. 

Guests:

Janka Oertel, ECFR Asia programme director and senior policy fellow

Timo Lochocki, ECFR visiting fellow

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