Gavin Grey: Europe and UK Correspondent on the first exit polls in Germany's snap election have been released

The first exit polls in Germany's snap election have been released. 

Centre-right CDU tops votes so far, with leader Friedrich Merz likely to be the next chancellor. 

Alternative for Germany AFD sits at just under 20-percent -- the best showing for a German far-right political party since the end of World War Two. 

Correspondent Gavin Grey told Andrew Dickens immigration is a major concern, following multiple terrorist attacks in Germany. 

He says recently, the person responsible has either been seeking asylum, or facing deportation. 

Grey says there's big question marks about Germany inviting in more than one-million people from Syria and Afghanistan. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So Europe we go and Kevin Gray from the UK, Hello, Gavin,
Hi there. So it's a bit of a worry about
Pope Frank.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Yeah, very much so. And the latest from the Vatican
is that he has asked for Catholics to pray for him.
He's now known to be suffering from double pneumonia. An
update yesterday was deeply worrying, saying that the eighty eight
year old's condition had worsened, that it continues to be critical,
and that both his lungs were infected with this strain

(00:31):
virus that he's got. So I'm afraid the situation is very,
very tense and fraught, as you can imagine, well wishes
praying outside the hospital as we speak, dozens of people
lighting candles, leaving them at the foot of a nearby
statue of the late John Paul the Second. Now the
eighty eight year old Pope was admitted to hospital on
the fourteenth of February. He'd been experiencing breathing difficulties for

(00:54):
several days. He has had problems with lung infections before
developing pleurisy. That's that information around the lungs, which is
quite painful. It got that as an adult, but also
having had a part of one of his lungs removed
at the age of twenty one. But yeah, I'm afraid
the updates now becoming more and more worrying for everyone,
and lots of people wishing him well. As I said,

(01:17):
dozens gathered outside the hospital as.

Speaker 1 (01:19):
We understand that the Venican is going to make a
statement on his condition in about one hour's time, so
we will bring that to you ran about a quarter
to seven this morning. Meanwhile, we've got an election in
Germany and the question is will Germany kick right?

Speaker 2 (01:33):
Yeah, and it's looking like it will. The polls close
in just over ten minutes time. We should then get
a sort of an initial an initial forecast about what
that polling will hold. And actually in the past these
exit poles in Germany have been pretty accurate. We do
think there's going to be a big swing to the
right and far right. Why well, because big topics of

(01:55):
the immigration and also the stagnant economy have been major
players in this campaign. Now, I'm afraid to say that
the Germany has suffered from several terrorist or terrorists related
attacks over the last few months, vans being cars being
driven into crowds, stabbing incidents, and in the last three
or four incidents certainly it has been somebody from either

(02:18):
Syria or Afghanistan seeking asylum or having been promised he
would be deported and then not being deported. So big
question marks about the country inviting in over a million
people as part of it sort of the helping those
in Syria and Afghanistan. And of course the far right
has gained support as well from people like Elon Musk

(02:39):
and Donald Trump who are being quite proactively supporting them.
But fifty nine million Germans eligible to vote, and the
interesting thing is twenty percent were undecided ahead of the
election day. Other parties have said they will never work
with the far right. However, if the far right gains
a sufficient vote, it's going to be very very difficult

(03:00):
for other parties to coalesce in order to get a
working majority with a coalition government. So I'm afraid the
next few hours are going to be very very interesting.

Speaker 1 (03:09):
Yeah, And the CDU used to be Angela Merkel's party,
and that's now Frederick k Metz's party. And he's actually
got a hardline against migration all of a sudden, which
shows that he's also seen with the wind Blows at
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