CGTN Europe spoke to Ulrich Brückner, Professor for European Studies at Stanford University Berlin
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00:00Ulrich Bruckner is a professor for European Studies at Stanford University Berlin, joining us now.
00:07Ulrich, first of all, you know, Mertz got there in the end, but do you think losing out in that first round is going to damage his credibility and ability to hold together that coalition?
00:18Well, I think we have to put it in the context of what kind of political system are we talking about.
00:24This is not a king in a fairy tale who can decide what he wants or make an announcement and then everyone in his party group simply follows.
00:34This is a lesson learned from a totalitarian system in the past to decentralize power and to organize a system of checks and balances in which the chancellor is to a certain extent a condition taker.
00:48And the constitution speaks when we look at the role of members of parliament about two different types of members of parliament.
00:57There are those who are perfectly independent and they have to report to their constituency.
01:02And then there are those who are only nominated because a party nominated them.
01:07And today we saw the first.
01:09This is what people expressed as we don't like him as a person, we don't like him as a leader, we don't like his dialogue, we would have expected more from the coalition agreement.
01:20And they expressed their opinion, which is perfectly fine and not a constitutional crisis.
01:27He has massive economic challenges.
01:30As our correspondent mentioned, Germany is facing the risk of a third year of recession.
01:36What does he need to do to create unity within his coalition and actually move forward decisively on fixing the economy?
01:46Well, we have also seen 16 years of an economic growth.
01:51What counts as a recession is a minus 0.3 or something over the longer period of time in a very unfavorable condition, especially when it comes to globalization, which is not a lack of leadership.
02:06But it is the consequence of being an open economy that is so dependent on functioning supply chains and the global demand, for example, in China or a different foreign policy in the United States these days.
02:20So it's not all about will Mertz guide Germany into a brighter future.
02:25If the conditions aren't in favor of that, anyone in that position would struggle and will not instantly deliver.
02:34But he's doomed to deliver because Alternative für Deutschland, the extreme right, wants a different Germany.
02:40And if this coalition doesn't deliver, then it will be very complicated to predict in what direction we are heading.
02:48It was interesting today on the anniversary, 50 years of EU-China relations.
02:54And there's a sense of these two blocs really wanting to work together to defeat what they call unilateral bullying, what President Xi has said that.
03:02Do you see a specific role for Germany within that?
03:06Absolutely, because the biggest German companies are massively invested in China.
03:12And if the general sentiment is de-risking because we simply can't afford to decouple from China,
03:18then we have to calibrate the different roles the European Union defines in their relationship and in their China strategy.
03:27Should it be a partnership?
03:29Should it be a competitor?
03:31Or are we serious rivals?
03:33And this needs to be closely looked at.
03:36And the de-risking strategy can mean very different things, certainly not just to pull out and to end the relationship with China.
03:44This would be damaging both sides.
03:46Thank you so much for your time today.
03:48Really appreciate your views.
03:50That's Ulrich Bruckner, Professor for European Studies at Stanford University.