I am German and on Sunday 23rd February I watched the German election results unfold at a German Embassy event in London. It was hosted at the German ambassadors residence on Belgrave square and There were all sorts of German snacks available, bratwurst in laugenstangen mit senf und ketchup, Eine arabisch inspirierte Kartoffelsuppe mit kichererbsen, Brezeln, haribo und leckerer zwetschken Kuchen and natürlich, German beer and deutscher wine. there were lots of media people at this event. I brought my German mother as a plus one who immediately spotted Alistair Campbell, said she recognised him and was he perhaps an old university friend of hers? He wasnt, but I went over and said hallöchen I love your podcast, and we ended up discussing election predictions in German—his German is really rather impressive. Just before 5pm we all crowded into a room to watch the results of the exit polls, if you don’t know much about German politics, support for the far right party AfD has recently soared so there’s a fear about what that means for Germany. In the end, The CDU which is the equivalent of the Tory party got 28% and the AfD got 20% and there were less than 4 million votes between the two. and with no outright majority, its up to the CDU to form a coalition government, but will they break the firewall and create one with the AfD who are now the second largest party in the country? Or will they work with 2 or 3 smaller parties to form a government? What do you think….? - @hrhgeorgiana