My guest is David McAllister.

David McAllister is a member of the European Parliament from Germany,

first elected in 2014, and he's also chairman of the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee

at Posties Health since 2017. Welcome to the podcast, David.

Thank you very much. Great to do this in view. Right. Well, before we talk

about some of the substance of the issues of our little chat, some people hearing your name and

listening to your voice may be rather intrigued about how come a German MEP has this name and has

also this accent. So before we get in some of the topics, could you briefly explain

your family background? Sure. I'm 53 years old, married to two kids. We live with our family

in northern Germany. And I grew up in West Berlin. Why did I grow up in West Berlin? Because my

father served in the British military. First as a soldier,

then as a civil servant, and he was stationed for a long time in Germany, married a German wife,

and that's why I, until today, have dual citizenship, the British passport and the German passport.

So that's my British background. Professionally, after going to school, I served two years and the German passport. So that's my British background.

Professionally, after going to school,

I served two years in the German army, studied law.

I'm a lawyer since 1998.

And before joining the European Parliament,

I served in German politics, among other positions,

as Minister President of the German Bundesland of Nieder's accent for three years.

Thank you for that. Right. Let's get cracking. We're going to talk about obviously world politics, geopolitics, European politics.

Let's start with domestic German politics. What is your view from the outside, rather alarming rise of success of the

...