Refugee policy, but the chancellor repeated the words she uttered years ago to get into office, we can do this. Its a a pleasurere to welcome r the, a Business Editor at berlin daily, who says the afd has peaked. The greatest danger for Angela Merkel is her own party. The opinion editor for a newspaper thinks merkel will have to deal with peoples concerns about her refugee policy. Otherwise, the upcoming federal election will be a disaster for her party. Have thea pleasure to reporter of the merkel elections for politico, who believes merkel could have seen it coming. For months, her critics have waited for an opportunity to undermine her position. Rathermedia are mostly steady, but they have been using rhetoric toagnerian describe this. The b beginning of ththe end foe gods and for the chancellor according to some. How serious is the result really . Is this truly some kind of watershed . It is serious. I do not know if it t is some kd of watershed, but it is ace. Ereus result the rightwing populist party from the start gets more than 20 and beats the party of the governing chancellor. This is serious. Just because one of 16 vendors in germany with not so many inhabitants in it, so it is more of a symbol, but it is a symbol. Ecause every party is losing gaining was the afd. Merkel is seen by most p peoples of thebolic figure refugee policy, if she likes it or not. She took credit for it and was praised for it by the United Nations secretarygeneral, the president of the United States, various magazines all over the world. Because sheunfair is governing in a grand coalition, but that is how it is. We will come back to if it is fair or not. Watershed . Has peaked. Afd they are looking pretty strong at the moment. Thats true. On the other hand, the refugee ic is at its peak, and is it is the only topic this party has. They do not have a program. They are only a party saying what they do not want and what they do not want is refugees. If everyone stops talking about refugees because other topics come up as being more important, i cannot see how the afd is poised to have more than 20 . I think that is the most they ever get. In east germany, they have usually 20 to 24 , but in the west, they usually have 1 12 to 15 and not more. For example, now there will be an election in berlin, and they saying they will have just 12 . As mentioned, this is an eastern state, a part of the formerer communist part of east germany. It is also very rural, sparsely populated, and it is also Angela Merkels home state. You were there. How representative is it for the rest of the country . I would say it is represented representative because the campaign was not about state issues. It was about federal issues, national issues. About refugees. Those are questions mainly being decided in berlin, not the state capital, and ill, the whole campaign was about those national issues. Terms of its size or population it is a small state, i think it was a very important election. Before we go on, let us perhaps take a closer look at or alternative for germany. Here is a short film. Negative Election Campaign drew lots of voters. They made it clear what they did not like. They spoke out against foreigners, who make up only of the population. They did best in tourist towns. Antimuslim sentiment is strong. People are concerned about burgers and bikinis burkas and burkinis. Antieu sentiments are also running high describing the feeling of fear that somehow without any concrete object, but the fear of change, and its true that merkel does not say why we will never had any more refugees, and i think that is because she cannot promise that there will not be any more refugees because the war in syria is going on. Dangeroust would be to say there will be no refugees and then they are coming. Want to come back if you do not mind. We have a little film about the chancellor, and i would like to come back just a bit later, but lets perhaps stay for a wild with the question of afd supporters and who they are. If i listen to your r descripti, it reminds me a lot of what we hear about Trump Supporters in the u. S. , and one of the isstions in the u. S. What the connection between those with these vague fears and the far right, the neonazi right, . Ich also exist in the u. S. What would you say is the case . Did actuallyparty used to have representation in parliament. It has been rather strong. Is that what we are seeing, a connection . I think there is a connection, and i think it is important to note this, but i think theres more. There are some who say around have some voters who right wing tendencies who were untapped so far, and they would not vote for the npd because they are stigmatized because they openly express neonazi tendencies. The afd was founded in 2013 as the skeptic party, lets not forget that. It had an image of the professors party because it was founded by economists, and this serves as a platform to kind of are, like, right wing extremists among them, but i think the large majority among afd voters are not far right extremists. They are far right voters who do st feel represented by Merkel Christian democrats anymore. Just a word on these figures who were quite big in the state and during the Election Campaign. They look like pretty cleancut, mainstream guys. I know you have met them. What are they really like . I would agree, a former radio host, well spoken, economist by training. He is very sort of soft spoken, but at the same time, he leaves no doubt about his ultraconservative stance, particularly when it comes to family issues. The other candidate represents the far right wing within the afd. I saw him at a Campaign Event in the state capitol. He was really brought into sort of cater to this far right potential of voters within the afd. When you look at ththe audience, there were not that many people ththere. 150 or 100 people, which is not much for a Campaign Event. You can see there were a lot of far right positions among those people in the audience. My impression was and this is very much what you earlier said the common denominator was that they were all against something. In particular, they were all against refugee policies, but there were some against what they call gender mainstreaming. When a woman says shes not ok with her kids being taught about homosexuality y in school. Others against russian sanctions. Im glad you mentioned russia because here is another fascinating fact we discovered while doing the research for this program. A survey by a renowned institutions many supporters of the afd trust putin more than merkel. What is going on their . I think what they really look for is a strong leader with nationalistic ideas. Hat is putin his program basically is russia first. Russia has to be strong. No foreigners in russia. Everything has to be russian, and he is a strong leader, and that is something they really of course,tive, but we also have to see that with east germany. If they were just looking for anrong leaders, even erdog from turkey, and they do not also in west germany, there is strong support for putin. Not only east german ties to russia i think it is interesting that percentagewise, they have not just gained many votes from the nonvoters, but also from the very left party because they are antiglobalist, antiamerican, prorussian. They even took over a lot of elements from the leftwing , so this is a combination of populist rightwing and leftwing motivations. Trusts im thinking of and leadership. Angela merkels popularity ratings,s, which were once seemingly unshakable, has been headed downward recently. Lets take a look. Of course the outcome of this poll is linked with our refugee policy. Im the party leader and thehe chancellor. You cannot divide the two, so im responsible. Hell, i believe we made the right decision. Still, i believe we made the right decision. A lot of voters disagree. Merkel has lost t control. She believes everyryone can just come here and do whatever they want. I believe Angela Merkels time is over. The latest polls indicate the chancellors popularity has dipped to a fiveyear low, and many of her Party Colleagues are a course correction. Has germany lost confidence in Angela Merkel. The Angela Merkel we saw at the beginning of that report was speaking from the g20, visibly humble, visibly concerned, and she said, for example, she takes responsibility and knows she has to demonstrate to people that the problems are being solved later in the week. She assured parliament that germany will remain germany despite the influx of refugees. You say that is not enough. What do you want to hehear her say . First of all, i d do not want to hear her say we will not take any refugees in. It is impossible to do with the syrian war going on, with all the turmoil in africa and so on. This is just impossible, but she that scenese voters like what we saw a year ago from hundred numbering be thousands and more, in a month will not be repeated. I mean, this is not a small decision, and it is regarded as her decision that she made and she was overwhelmed of the whole situation and people just want to be assured that it is like this will happen again, not without asking, not without representation, not without asking even the parliament to do these kinds of things, and that is what she refuses to do. Would it, do you think, really make a difference if she were to say words like that . You saw the campaign in mecklenburg. How can politicians who resist good argumentsnd visavis politicians who are populismilling to tap and anger and fear . I think my interpretation is that what were seeing right now , merkel losing popularity has to do with this contactt between conflict between policy on the one hand and politics on the other side. People withinof her party agree with it, she has done a lot of things since last year, implemented a lot of new asylumssigned laws, accelerated deportation, brought down the number of refugees arriving in the country. Her problems are politics. Her problem is how to communicate these things. The moment that a lot of people felt was kind of the straw that broke the camels back was her repeating the sentence we can do it. We will manage the situation, this summer when year later where a lot of people were asking why she was repeating this. A lot of people felt it might be accurate, might be true, might even reality, but why say that . People misunderstand statements like this as if she was not listening to their concerns, and i think this is exactly the sort that the afd is capitalizing on. Isnt that unfair . We say these voters want a strong leader. When she then utters a sentence meant to encourage, to build confidence, everybody is on her for that. Exactly. That is why i say this is above all a communication failure. I talked to a bunch of linguists , and they say in terms of political communication, it is so unfortunate because it has an unclear reference. It says we can do it, so what is it . Its being misappropriated,. Isused by her opponents i think the problem is completely different. The problem is she did everything there was to do, and then she has her own party always saying its not enough, we are failing. The bavarian branch of the conservative party continuously claim that nothing is being done despite the fact that everything is being done. What is the population supposed if those governing always claim that they themselves do not govern . Exactly. That party, if i can just we then a quote from it right here, leader, himself quite a populist figure, said himself this week that folks do not want the politics that religion is serving g up. His party is part of the govevernment. Exactly. Nothing you can do. That is something you cannot overcome. That is stronger than the chancellor. You have to understand theres two interpretations. Outside germany, nobody understand that we are discussing a phrase like we can do it. It is encouraging, gives you optimism. Interpretationnd is like no big deal. We can do it. It is diminishing the size of the problem. She shows she is not understanding how big the problems are. Lets just get away from the semantics for a moment and talk about the other parties and their contribution to the difffficulties that the chancelr is in. You said earlier perhaps it is not there to blame her, and the fact is both of her coalition parties, not only the junior sister party i in bavaria, but e are acting like they are not part of the government. We have heard social democrats also doing quite a bit of merkel bashing this week. Yes, they have found a new narrative. They are saying they supported her decision at year ago opening the waters and letting refugees in, but then she makes tremendous failures recognizing the size of the problem, and that is what went wrong. It both trying to have ways, to be on her side with her decision a year ago, but to distance from her in implementing all these refugees all these refugee policies. Lest we forget, we are entering Campaign Mode in this country. National elections are coming up next year, and with the christian social union, it is important to note that throughout six years of their party history, the most important thing is for them to. Old up their power in bavaria i think the problem really is that everyone thinks that one million refugees must be a big problem. That is something you also had said. She should acknowledge there is a big problem. It is not a big problem. You can see that. We have taken in one million , and nonetheless, the budget has a surplus. To be honest, we could have taken 2 million refugees and the in at would still be surplus. It is kind of weird everyone in germany thinks theres this big problem despite the fact that we can finance the refugees without raising taxes. The problem isk or what causes the tension here is financial. Just onehere are Million People from the orient, from syria, iraq, eritrea, places like this afghanistan and they are just strangers in a country like germany. This is the kind of beer. This is the fear you talked about. Before we run out of time, i would like to ask you because you mentioned the federal election. Our title asked how isolated is merkel. I would like to ask you briefly how you see the implications for the next elections and for merkels own political fate . Could it be she will not be standing for her party . She will run because there is no one else in the party who could become chancellor. Im pretty sure she will run for chancellor but also it would be impossible for the u. K. To. Ote to leave the eu in politics, everything is possible. And the state of the afd . The afd is here to stay. Here to stay, but merkel has a job explaining politics and policy and where the borders of humanity lie. Beginning of the end for merkel . No. Not now. Is diminished in power and influence, but she is still a very strong figure in european politics. That sounded like consensus. Many thanks to all of you for being with us today and many thanks to all of you for tuning in. See you soon. nnnnnnnooooo[[;oooc announcer this is a production of China Central television america. May who doesnt love a great story . So much can be learned, felt, and expressed through storytelling, but most importantly, stories can foster better understanding across cultural and social lines. Whether it be through film, song, or even comic books and Digital Media, stories that are able to truly reflect the Global Village in which we live can only help open up new horizons and shift perceptions for the better. This week on full frame, conversatitis with cultural storytellers who are spurring change. Im may lee in los angeles. Lets take it full frame. When you bring up eddie huangs name, a few things come to mind chef, hiphop fan, tv host, rebel, a storyteller. Eddie is a taiwanesechinese american author who wrote fresh off the boat, a bestselling memoir that inspired the hit american tv sitcom of the same name, which is all about eddies struggles growing up as a young boy trying to fit in in suburban florida. In the last few years, eddie has connected even more deeply witith his Chinese Culture and has chronicled the journey in his latest book, double cup love on the trail of family, food, and broken hearts in china. Eddie huhuang is here with me now. Eddie, great to have you here. Eddie thanks for having me. May its great to meet you. Eddie this is my favorite show to watch in hotels in china. May hey, man, we like to hear that. Thats awesome. I didnt pay him to say that, of course. Eddie no. I watch it at the w all the time. May do you . Eddie yeah. May im glad to hear youre a fan. Eddie hopefully, i get starwood points for saying that. May [laughs] ok. All right, lets talk about you now. Um, its only been 3 years, right, since you wrote fresh off the boat, that memoir . Eddie yeah. May and now, all of a sudden, youre coming out with a new book . Eddie yeah. May um, thats pretty quick to pump out a new book. What was the inspiration behind double cup love . Eddie yeah, it is. I remember when i wrotete the first one, there were people, before they read it, were like, why would you read a memoir from someone whos 29 years old . Well, read the book. Its good, you know . And it is very tough to write a memoir, but so much happened immediately after the launch of the first book. May ohh. Eddie my life totally changed, and i had to deal with it, and i was really. May in a good way or bad way . Eddie searching for myself once again. Its alwayswell, i dont think anything in life is either good or bad. Itsit just is. May yeah. Eddie right . It is, and, you know, its the yin and yang thing, but i dealt with it, because i shed a new skin, writing the old book. Ii got a monkey off my back, and i said a lot of things, and i think the first book is very reactionary. Its at times angry and defiant, but, like, its to be expected of someone whos an asian that grew up in america who a lot of people called black and was not allowed to just be himself. May yeah. Eddie and so i wrote that book as a reaction for a lot of other asian kids like me, and once i got it off my chest, i was, like, wow, i dont need to be a reaction anymore. Now i need to figure out how i really think if all these external factors didnt exist, and i started to wonder, what would my life be like if i lived in china and i was born in china . May yeah. Eddie right . So i went back to china, and i chronicled kind of this reversed migration, and i had also met a really, really cool girl in brooklyn at the time, and before i went back to china, i met her, but the trip was already planned, so its juggling, like, your love life, your identity in new york, china, and family, and goi