80: The Rise of the AfD and the Threat to German Democracy. Judy Dempsey discusses the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, noting it is infiltrating German culture, education, and town halls, predominantly in the East. She warns that th

The John Batchelor Show

John Batchelor

Society & Culture, Arts, News, Books

4.5 • 2.8K Ratings

🗓️ 12 November 2025

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The Rise of the AfD and the Threat to German Democracy. Judy Dempsey discusses the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, noting it is infiltrating German culture, education, and town halls, predominantly in the East. She warns that the AfD poses a danger to German democracy and the rule of law. The future hinges on whether established parties can isolate the AfD or if the Constitutional Court will intervene to outlaw the party. Dempsey also notes that the BBC scandal involves the highly scrutinized domestic service, distinct from the generally "exemplary" BBC World Service.
1933

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This is CBS I On the World. I'm John Batchelor. I welcome my good colleague Judy Dempsey of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a senior scholar in Berlin. And Judy has guided me to say, happy St. Martin's Day. Judy, a very good day to you. A celebration, 1111 November in Europe. What is St. Martin's Day. Judy, a very good day to you. A celebration, 11-11 November in Europe. What is St. Martin's Day? What does it represent to the German people? Good day. Good day, John. It's a very nice feast and festival. St. Martin from Turk in France. He's been moved into Germany. It's a big event here.
0:41.3	And it represents a celebration of the harvest, but also the end of the harvest. And sorry, listeners, the beginning of winter. So this is the transition. And it's very nice because I used to do it when the children
0:56.8	were very small, go out to the kindergartens and play music and they dance around and they sing
1:02.4	lovely, lovely songs about St. Martin. I won't embarrass you with my singing, but this is a big thing
1:08.6	now across Berlin and the other German states in Germany.
1:12.4	Is it a holiday or just a celebration at school?
1:15.6	It's a celebration.
1:16.8	We have enough holidays.
1:18.1	I see.
1:18.5	It's a celebration in schools.
1:20.5	And they all love it because it's about two hours off and they get little cakes and little soft drinks and just have a good time and play instruments and dance around.
1:30.7	Thank you.
1:32.1	It's also a birthday of a very important German, in particular.
1:35.8	Hermit's the Chancellor of All Germany, but before we turn to Germany, we turn to London.
1:41.1	I'm an outsider to the London media, but I do the same thing. I record and I edit and I
1:47.7	speak all the time. The subjects that we're addressing today and the long conversation we're
1:54.3	enjoying are extremely vulnerable to distortion. And it is our work to be very careful of sources of information and to pass on the best
2:05.2	information we have the time and if we're in error to correct it as soon as possible.
2:10.2	We now have the BBC in the witness stand and it appears with resignations at the BBC, that a report that the BBC's
2:20.2	responsible for distorting the news about Donald Trump and possibly about Hamas and the Gaza war
2:28.5	is not refuted at this point by the BBC, and many political actors have yet to weigh in.
2:36.4	But I'm most interested in your opinion of what we're reading.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from John Batchelor, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of John Batchelor and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.