After 16 years of Angela Merkel's chancellorship, the signals for a new beginning in German politics are ambiguous. Her own party has gone for a candidate who promises continuity. But the Green Party has become the second strongest contender for office and this opens up new possibilities for coalition governments. What does either continuity or change mean for key policies and for European integration? The panel to discuss this question consists of a new generation of leading experts who analyse German politics and policymaking from an international vantage point.

Meet our speakers and chair

Ulrike Franke (@rikefranke) is a senior policy fellow at ECFR. She leads ECFR’s Technology and European Power initiative. Her areas of focus include German and European security and defence, the future of warfare, and the impact of new technologies on geopolitics and warfare.

Christian Odendahl (@COdendahl) is chief economist at the Centre for European Reform. Christian works on European monetary and fiscal policy, European integration and economic growth, financial markets as well as German politics. He commentates regularly on economic issues in print and broadcast media.

Mujtaba Rahman (@Mij_Europe) is Managing Director, Europe, at the Eurasia Group. Mujtaba leads and oversees the firm's analysis and advisory work on Europe, helping clients to navigate the macro-politics of Brussels and its interaction with the member states, across a wide range of policy areas. Prior to joining Eurasia Group, Mujtaba worked at the European Commission's Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs and at the UK Treasury. He is an Adjunct Professor at Sciences-Po in Paris, as well as a Senior Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Daniela Schwarzer (@d_schwarzer) is Executive Director for Europe and Eurasia at the Open Society Foundations. Since 2016, she has served as director and CEO of the German Council on Foreign Relations and has advised the EU Commission and national governments on European affairs.

Waltraud Schelkle is Professor in Political Economy at the European Institute and has been at LSE since 2001. She is also an Adjunct Professor (Privatdozentin) of Economics at the Economics Department of the Free University of Berlin.

More about this event

The European Institute (@LSEEI) is a centre for research and graduate teaching on the processes of integration and fragmentation within Europe. In the most recent national Research Excellence Framework the Institute was ranked first for research in its sector.

This event forms part of LSE’s Shaping the Post-COVID World initiative, a series imagining what the world could look like after the crisis, and how we get there.

Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEGermanyVotes 

A podcast of this event is available to download from Germany After Merkel: end of an era or more of the same?.

A video of this event is available to watch at Germany After Merkel: end of an era or more of the same?.

Podcasts and videos of many LSE events can be found at the LSE Public Lectures and Events: podcasts and videos channel.