Welcome to Sharp Talk, the regular podcast of E-Sharp Magazine. Go to eSharp.E.sharp. EU for free access to all the podcasts to date. This is Paul Adamson, and I'm in conversation with Thomas Kleiner Brokhoff.

Thomas Kleiner Brockoff is Vice President of General Marshal Fund of the United States,

where he oversees the organization's activities in Germany and leads the Europe program.

Prior to that, he serves an advisor to Joachim Kauk, the president of Germany,

and before that he has also worked at the Washington Bureau, Chief of D. DeSait.

Thomas, I liked this conversation, this podcast,

to be broken down into three broad areas, if I may, one domestic, one European and one transatlantic.

So first of all, let's cut to the chase on the domestic front. Angela Merkel won quite a

impressive fourth term of office as Chancellor a few weeks ago, she's busy building a

coalition. The commentary out there seemed divided about whether this was actually a success for her

in terms of getting a fourth term or whether she's actually a much more weakened political

personality. What is your take? How does she see domestically in terms of her leadership and her particular weight?

Clearly, your fourth term is not the first term.

You are in office 12 years. The election result while bringing her back to office was not that impressive.

She is weakened and she has a complicated coalition negotiation in front of her.

But the electorates have been either agnostic or skeptical of something that we call the

Jamaica Coalition of Greens, Free Market, Liberals, and Conservatives.

There's no precedent to it. There is no history. There is nothing

that in coalition building, as opposed to winner takes office, the coalition building needs something

that you would call a political project, an idea of what you want to do together other than

get to post the government.

And that has been unclear for this combination of parties because there is no history.

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