Our Europe Editor Catherine Nicholson and her team take you to Germany as they visit the region in the west of the country which flooded in July 2021. They explore the new government's climate policy, flood and Covid-19 recovery, foreign policy and more.
Germany is a giant in Europe: the biggest EU member state by population, its biggest economy and one of the founding states of the Union.
Today, the country is at a political turning point after its chancellor of 16 years, Angela Merkel, bowed out. Her centre-right CDU/CSU alliance won its lowest vote share in its history in September's federal election, subsequently giving way to a three-way coalition that’s never been tried before.
The SPD Social Democrats, Greens and FDP liberals – known as the traffic-light coalition because of their party colours – come to power promising big things.
That includes a vow to tackle climate change head-on: a major priority after devastating, deadly flash-floods in the Rhineland in the summer of 2021.
Our team takes you around this area and the wider region as people there continue to pick up the pieces from their country’s worst natural disaster in half a century.
We ask politicians from all the major parties about their aspirations for this post-Merkel era. And with our reporters and correspondents, we meet some of the people making change on the ground.
In this part of the show, we meet German MEPs from the two biggest traditional parties: Katarina Barley of the SPD and Michael Gahler from the CDU.
And our report takes us on a visit to a giant open-cast mine near Düsseldorf, and the band of environmental activists fighting to stop it growing.
>> Click here to watch part two of the show
Show presented by Catherine Nicholson, produced by Johan Bodin, filmed on location by Olivier Molinari with Luke Brown.
In partnership with the European Union.
The action was co-financed by the European Union in the framework of the European Parliament's grant programme in the field of communication. The European Parliament was not involved in its preparation and is, in no case, responsible for or bound by the information or opinions expressed in the context of this action. In accordance with applicable law, the authors, interviewed people, publishers or programme broadcasters are solely responsible. The European Parliament can also not be held liable for direct or indirect damage that may result from the implementation of the action.
