Hello, I'm Paige, and this is the Eurointelligence podcast covering current affairs in the EU and Eurozone.

I'm joined by Wolfgang and Suzanne, directors of Eurointelligence here in Oxford.

Ugh, guys, I will quote my own Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, who said, this pandemic really sucks.

We knew it was heading in this direction, but Merkel and Macron confirmed it yesterday.

There's two new lockdowns in Germany and France. They won't be as restrictive as the ones in March,

but it is still a massive downer. Wolfgang, you've been writing about whether these lockdowns

will be enough to stop the spread and how politics will change after the second wave. What's happening

in Germany right now?

Germany has, it's panicking.

For the first time, they're panicking.

They saw those forecasts.

They didn't believe them.

And they came true.

And then Merkel was the first to panic.

Two weeks ago, she tried to get the state premiers to change the rule.

She failed two weeks ago.

She got only a very limited set of agreements.

In Germany, it's all state level.

It's not federal level.

So her role is basically to seek a consensus among the state princes.

And this week, she managed to get the consensus going.

And they agreed on the partial lockdown

...