German election explained — French fury at Australian sub snub

Brussels Playbook Podcast

POLITICO

News, Politics, News Commentary

4.4 • 204 Ratings

🗓️ 23 September 2021

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We explore the defining moments of the German election campaign and debate the security-and-submarine deal between Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom that enraged France. POLITICO's Andrew Gray, Matthew Karnitschnig and Emily Schultheis are in Berlin for the big one, Sunday's German general election, which will bring down the curtain on the Angela Merkel era. They're joined by our in-house polling expert Cornelius Hirsch to the tell story of a surprising campaign that's gone down to the wire: The center-left Social Democrats, with their chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz, have a narrow lead over the conservative camp and their standard-bearer Armin Laschet but it's too close to call. Then we turn to AUKUS, the three-way pact that scuppered a multibillion-dollar French submarine deal with Australia, provoking fury in Paris and triggering transatlantic turbulence. POLITICO's Zoya Sheftalovich joins us from Sydney to explain why Australia went from agreeing to buy French diesel-fueled submarines to holding secret talks to replace that deal with a nuclear-powered fleet. Rym Momtaz and David M. Herszenhorn talk through the diplomatic fallout from the move. Finally, set a reminder to join us for a live Twitter audio chat on the German election results this Sunday at 10 p.m. CET. We'll be analyzing the outcome and getting a flavor of the mood among the parties. That discussion will be the basis for a special episode of EU Confidential, which will drop into your feed early Monday morning. Be sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts so you don't miss it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	EU Confidential gets started right after this.
0:03.6	Today's episode is presented by SQM.
0:06.9	Pablo Altamirez, SVP at SQM, spoke to Politico Studio about sustainable lithium,
0:12.9	electromagnobility and soaring demand.
0:15.6	Read the interview on Politico.
0:19.5	The first major initiative of Orcus will be to deliver a nuclear-powered submarine fleet
0:25.0	for Australia.
0:26.2	We intend to build these submarines in Adelaide, Australia, in close cooperation with the
0:31.9	United Kingdom and the United States.
0:35.1	Welcome to a bumper edition of Politico's EU Confidential, the number one European
0:41.1	politics podcast. I'm Andrew Gray, Politico's EU editor, coming to you from Berlin this week.
0:47.9	And you just heard the Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, setting off a geopolitical
0:52.9	earthquake as he announced his country was ditching a multi-billion dollar submarine deal with France and replacing it with a broader security and technology pact with the US and the UK known as Ocus.
1:07.5	The decision to blow France out of the water in the Pacific sparked outrage in Paris and rippled across Europe, with some EU leaders raising new questions about the future of the Transatlantic Alliance and accusing US President Joe Biden of disloyalty. We'll dive into all of that with our reporters based in Sydney, Paris and Brussels
1:29.4	later in the podcast. But first, we're here in Berlin for the big one. Sunday's German general
1:37.1	election, which will bring the curtain down on the Angela Merkel era. A historic moment for Germany
1:43.8	and for Europe.
1:45.0	Over the past 16 years, Merkel has, of course, emerged as the continent's pre-eminent leader,
1:51.0	steering her country and the EU through multiple crises.
1:55.0	Up until recently, the euro has been a strong currency, a reflection of Europe's economic mind.
2:01.6	The largest group of migrants making the perilous journey.
2:02.6	Europe's biggest economy is poised to re-enter lockdown.
	...

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