Political parties in Germany have been choosing their leadership candidates, ahead of February’s election. Olaf Scholz leads the Social Democrats again, while Alice Weidel has been endorsed for the far-right AfD party.
With thousands protesting at the AfD conference, our correspondent Peter Oliver reports from Berlin.
00:00Yes, we found out on Saturday that it will be Olaf Scholz for the Social Democrats and it will be Alice Weidel for AFD.
00:08And we're also expecting to hear later on Saturday that it will be Friedrich Merz, who will be standing for the Conservative CDU-CSU Union.
00:15But it's just wrapped up here in Berlin, where I'm speaking to you from, at the Social Democratic Party conference.
00:21That's where Olaf Scholz was given the nod, the green light by delegates.
00:25They also approved the manifesto that has been put forward by Olaf Scholz's team.
00:30That's a manifesto that includes more borrowing. It includes a reform of the debt break that's called in Germany.
00:38That's written into the constitution. It means no government can borrow 0.35% of GDP per year.
00:45They can't borrow any more than that. Olaf Scholz wants to change that so that for particularly infrastructure projects,
00:51that more money could be borrowed and then subsequently spent.
00:54He also said that he wants to see tax breaks for lower and middle income earners.
00:59And without mentioning the United States by name, he did say that if he is returned as chancellor by the electorate,
01:05that he wouldn't be afraid to stand up to those who didn't follow European values, whether they were to the east or to the west.
01:13Heavily talking about Donald Trump's return to the White House there.
01:16Elsewhere, away in Saxony, where Alternative für Deutschland, the AfD, were holding their party conference.
01:22It was very different scenes than we've seen here in Berlin.
01:25It started late there because of protesters against AfD blocking the routes for delegates to be able to get in.
01:31We saw some fairly ugly scenes between protesters and police as they clashed.
01:35But ultimately, we did see Alice Weidel returned there as the candidate for chancellor for Alternative für Deutschland.
01:42Their party policy, very different to what we've heard from the Social Democrats,
01:46a lot more on limiting and decreasing migration and containing what the AfD are putting forward to voters.
01:52Olaf Scholz clearly wants to stay in office, doesn't he? Is that realistic? Can he do it?
01:57It's going to be a tough ask.
02:02Shortly before I came to talk to you, I was speaking to the German health minister, Karl Lauterbach, for a report we'll be putting on air on Sunday.
02:10I said, look, you're really quite far behind, aren't you?
02:13He said, as far as they're concerned, the campaign starts on Monday and they're hoping they can make up some ground.
02:18But the ground they're talking about making up, CDU, CSU, they're leading at 30% at the moment.
02:23Second is the far-right AfD. Then, way back on 16, it's the Social Democrats with the Greens on 15.
02:30It would be one heck of a comeback story if the Social Democrats were able to do it.
02:34They do seem fairly confident, but really we are looking at the Christian Social Union getting the first crack.
02:40It's setting up a government if the polls play out to be true when people go to the ballot.
