76: Where is Germany going? The future of Europe's sleeping giant after the Merkel era

The fight is on to replace Germany's centrist chancellor, Angela Merkel, who is stepping down after dominating the country's political scene for a decade and a half. With new elections scheduled for September will Germany embrace change, or choose the centrist status quo? To get a handle on Germany's next political chapter, hosts Luke Cooper and Zoe Williams are joined by Franziska Heinisch, an activist with the Justice is Global Europe collective and author of the book, Wir haben keine Wahl / We Have No Choice, a manifesto against giving up, and Christos Katsioulis, a foreign policy analyst and director of the London office of Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, the political education foundation loosely aligned with the German social democracy. We pick their brains on where Germany is going after the Merkel era, what the big controversies are in the run to the September elections, and how hopeful they are on the prospects for progressive social change.