angela merkel may yet leave office as germany s second longest serving chancellor in the country s isa year history outlasting her predecessor, helmut kohl. although sunday s elections should identify her successor, mrs merkel may be around for a few months longer, as acting chancellor, whilst the political parties wrangle over the make up of a new coalition government. stefanie, is it going to be a case of angela s ashes already scattered within a few months to the political history books? or is there a lasting legacy we can point to on german politics and indeed may be on european politics? because there seem to be some very different views on, really, whether she has had a significant political difference. we might have seen the title of the economist this week, with the headline the mess merkel leaves behind. increasingly, people look at her legacy and they think it s not very impressive. she has been managing one crisis after the other. first, the euro crisis ten years ago, then
it is a bit of a surprising development in the campaign. the spd, like other social democratic parties in europe, have been suffering. they were the junior partner of merkel. nobody expected them to poll so well. currently, they are leading. it is a much tighter margin, this is because of the. so it is split? yes, it is because the finance minister, the candidate, he presents himself. stefanie, we are going to have to leave it there. to stephanie, latika and david, thank you to all of you. goodbye.
and angela merkel was among those who provided a steadying hand to keep the process on the road. and then thinking further back, the disastrious summit in copenhagen, it fell apart without agreement. again, i was there, and we were all aware of her steadying influence. but domestically, a more mixed record. we have heard about the continued burning of fossil fuels. i ve been to one of these unbelievably big open cast coal mines in germany machines on a staggering scale, gouging of the dirtiest of the fossil fuels. germany is still very, very dependent on that as a source of power, and if that is one of the legacies, that will look a little bit negative in the coming years, i think. stefanie, just a brief thought in terms of what may come afterwards, when she eventually leaves office. if the social democrats are top of the poll, is that because they are particularly successful or does it tell us something more broadly by german politics?
this is bbc news the headlines. china has like a welcomed home the huawei executive who spent three years under house arrest in canada while fighting extradition to the us. minutes before meng wanzhou touchdown at the airport, tear canadian men who have been held by beijing were greeted by prime ministerjustin trudeau on arriving home in canada. german politicians have been making their final appeals to voters ahead of sunday s parliamentary election as the country gets you to a post angela merkel world. the front relative succeed her, olaf schultz of the social democrats, took part in a town hall meeting in berlin. the volcanic eruption on la palma has led to the closure of the airport on the spanish island. the authorities say the accumulation of ash made it impossible to operate, but clean up work was under way. it mainly handles the tories charter flights and connections to other islands in the
this is bbc news. the headlines. china has welcomed home the huawei executive who spent three years under house arrest in canada while fighting extradition to the us. minutes before meng wanzhou touched down, to echo canadian men who had been held by beijing were greeted by prime minister justin trudeau on arriving home. german politicians have been making their final appeals to voters ahead of sunday because of a parliamentary election as a country gets used to a post angela merkel world. the frontrunner to succeed her took part in a town hall meeting near pelling. the volcanic eruption and la palma has led to the closure of the airport and the spanish allah. authorities say the accumulation of ash made it impossible to operate and clean up work was under way. it mainly managers tourist charter