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00:00Horror and disbelief across liberal Europe about far-right win in Eastern Germany.
00:13The result of two regional elections in Germany's east have sent shockwaves through Europe.
00:17That a far-right party, known for its relativism and ambiguity about Germany's Nazi past, was
00:24able to win, is being met with disbelief.
00:28The leader of their liberal group in the European Parliament, Valery Ayer, called it unprecedented
00:32and a dark day for Germany and for Europe.
00:36The European Commissioner for the Economy, Paolo Gentiloni, posted a bitter comment on
00:41the strong result of the far-right and the populist far-left.
00:45Friends of Russia in a former USSR satellite state, enemies of migrants in the German area
00:50with little immigration, rancour against everything and everyone, tweeted Gentiloni.
00:56It is unlikely that the AfD and the far-left Sarah Wagenknecht party will turn this majority
01:01into a governing coalition, but could this strong anti-Ukrainian and pro-Russian sentiment
01:07influence the German, or even the European, position on supporting Ukraine?
01:11Luckily, I must say, the lenders do not decide on foreign policy, so the support in Germany,
01:20according to all the polls we know, is quite high in support of the same cause for Europe.
01:24If you look into the numbers of young people who voted up to 40% to the extremist parties,
01:31then it is about the future and the vision we can give to them and their hopes, of course.
01:39One of the biggest losers of both regional elections is the Green Party, part of the
01:43governing coalition in Berlin.
01:45In the ring year, they failed to get a single legislator elected.
01:49Does that spell trouble for Germany's ambitious energy transition goals?
01:53And Green MEP Michael Bloos believes that the narrative surrounding the transition
01:57should focus more on what has already been achieved, especially in Germany's east.
02:04There's different things that we need to address on the eastern part.
02:07We in Germany overall need to appreciate more what they have already done in terms of transformation
02:13and how they have already achieved a lot.
02:18But with the political landscape changed beyond recognition and former coalitions reduced
02:22to irrelevance, the newly elected legislators in Saxony and Thuringia will first have to
02:28somehow find a way of forming a government.
02:34Far-right party Alternative for Germany managed to win a third of the votes in two East German
02:39states on Sunday.
02:41Parties in Saxony and Thuringia will begin talks to form a state government.
02:46Thuringia residents were too sceptical of the media to speak on camera, but told Euronews
02:50that their votes for the AfD were a last resort.
03:20Over in Saxony, voters expressed their shock that AfD and BSV managed to get so many votes.
03:51It's a bit disappointing for my terms.
03:54You could have guessed that the AfD would take first place, but for me it's an absolute
04:03protest by the people here in Saxony and Thuringia.
04:07They are very fearful that the AfD is so strong here and also the Wagenknecht.
04:13That's bad.
04:14As the far-right party Alternative for Germany celebrates their historic win in the Thuringia
04:19state elections, several hundred marched through the streets of Erfurt last night and several
04:25shed tears as it's the first time a far-right party has won a state elections since Nazi
04:31rule in Germany.
04:34Several Erfurt residents told me yesterday that the reason that they voted for AfD was
04:40because they were concerned about safety after knife attacks have dominated the headlines
04:45for the past few months.
04:48Even if the AfD doesn't manage to form a coalition, it's clear that other parties will begin to
04:54adopt stricter policies in a bid to win back disillusioned voters.
05:04Russia's President Vladimir Putin arrived to Mongolia on a state visit, but despite
05:09an outstanding international warrant, he wasn't arrested by the ICC member state.
05:15Putin was welcomed at Mongolia's international airport by the country's foreign minister.
05:20The official visit comes amid an international warrant for his arrest nearly 18 months ago
05:25on charges of war crimes in Ukraine.
05:28Ukraine and the EU had called on Mongolia to fulfil its obligation to the ICC and arrest Putin.
05:34We have raised our concern about the visit and stated our position of the ICC clearly
05:41via our delegation in Mongolia.
05:44And of course the EU supports the investigation by the prosecutor of the ICC in Ukraine and
05:50we call for the full cooperation by all state parties.
05:55Members of the ICC are bound to detain suspects if an arrest warrant has been issued, but
06:00the court doesn't have any enforcement mechanism.
06:04The ICC has accused Putin of being responsible for the abduction of children from Ukraine,
06:09where the fighting has raged for two and a half years.
06:15Russia has launched a barrage of drones, crews and ballistic missiles at Kiev Monday morning.
06:21Residents were sent into bomb shelters as several explosions rocked the city.
06:26One person was injured from falling debris, according to Kiev Mayor Vitaly Klitschko.
06:32The head of Kiev's city military administration said over 10 cruise missiles, about 10 ballistic
06:38missiles and a drone fired at the Ukrainian capital and its suburbs, were destroyed by
06:43Ukraine's air defences.
06:48In the Russian city of Belgorod, a Ukrainian shelling reportedly damaged a kindergarten,
06:53a commercial facility, several residential buildings and cars, said Governor Vyacheslav
06:58Gladkov.
07:00Just hours earlier, a strike in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv damaged a gas pipe and wounded
07:05dozens.
07:06Local firefighters tried to quench flames from leaking gas.
07:11This comes a day after Russia's military reported 158 Ukrainian drones targeted multiple Russian
07:17regions in one of the biggest attacks of the war.
07:24Belgium will nominate its Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Hadja Labib,
07:29to serve in the next European Commission, after missing the initial time limit set by
07:34Commission Chief, Ursula von der Leyen.
07:36The news came as Romania switched its Commission candidate to current MEP and former Minister
07:41for European Funds, Roxana Minzatu, with von der Leyen seeking to ensure greater gender
07:47balance among her top officials.
07:50With these announcements, each member state has now presented its nominees for the European
07:54Commission.
07:55At a conference in Slovenia, von der Leyen said this new commission will prioritize EU
08:00enlargement, which is why the area will now have its own commissioner.
08:04Let me be very clear.
08:08I want our work to speed up even more.
08:13In the next commission, enlargement must be a full-time job that allows undivided attention.
08:24And this is why I will appoint a dedicated commissioner for enlargement.
08:30Let's write history together.
08:34The new nominations mean women would represent 9 out of the 27 most senior officials in the
08:40EU's executive branch.
08:43The situation remains fluid amidst rumors that von der Leyen has requested countries
08:48to reconsider nominations in the pursuit of gender parity.
08:56Exit polls show that Azerbaijan's ruling party secured a narrow victory in Sunday's snap
09:01election.
09:03Political results show President Ilham Aliyev's new Azerbaijani party won 68 out of 125 seats,
09:10down from 69.
09:13Altogether 11 political parties are represented in the parliament as a result of these elections.
09:22But these are preliminary results.
09:25And so, and all other just 10 political parties get altogether 13 seats in the parliament.
09:33And the turnout, according to the preliminary results, for the whole country was 37.27 percent.
09:45The new Azerbaijan party has been in power since 1993.
09:50Initially led by Haider Aliyev, the party is now under the leadership of his son, who
09:55is often accused of ruling heavy-handedly and suppressing dissent.
10:02The election comes less than a year after Azerbaijani forces reclaimed the Nagorno-Karabakh
10:07region, which had been under the control of Armenian forces since 1994.
10:13Voting was held in the region for the first time in 30 years.
10:22The Gotthard base tunnel, the main rail connection between Switzerland and Italy, reopens on
10:27Monday more than a year after an accident forced its closure.
10:31It happened on August 10 last year when a Swiss Federal Railway's freight train derailed
10:36due to a broken wheel.
10:39The derailment caused the train to crash into the gate, separating the western and eastern
10:44tunnels, causing severe damage.
10:46An investigation after the crash revealed that hairline fractures in a wagon wheel caused
10:51the accident when pieces came away, causing the carriage to jump the tracks.
10:56And the clean-up operation was also problematic.
11:00The recovery of the accident train and the clearing of the crash site took several weeks.
11:06All materials had to be brought into the tunnel.
11:11The temperature in the Gotthard base tunnel was almost 40 degrees.
11:15Precautions had to be taken to protect the workers.
11:20SBB estimated last year that repairing the damage would cost in the region of €135 million,
11:26but the company said this week that the final price tag was €159 million.
11:32Taking almost 17 years to complete after decades of planning, the Gotthard base tunnel is the
11:37longest railway tunnel in the world, stretching 57 kilometers under the Swiss Alps.
11:43It's an essential link between Switzerland's German and Italian-speaking cantons and costs
11:48€10 billion to construct.