In the wake of Election Day in the United States and the collapse of Germany's coalition government, it was time to take stock: What happened in the final weeks of the U.S. campaign, and what were the key factors behind former President Trump's decisive victory? Why did Chancellor Olaf Scholz dissolve his governing coalition in Germany?
What do these election outcomes—Donald Trump’s landslide win in the U.S. and the uncertainty surrounding Germany's future government after snap elections—mean for democracy and the transatlantic relationship? With Donald Trump securing both the electoral and popular votes, is the divide in American society really as wide as many had predicted? Will extremist parties in Germany on the far right and left continue to gain ground?
We took look back at a tumultuous election year of 2024, featuring Politico reporter Emily Schultheis and TV journalist, moderator, and content creator Tessniem Kadiri.
This talk is part of our trans-Atlantic series “Across the Pond” in collaboration with Open Embassy for Democracy (OPEM) and University of Cologne New York Office. Curated and moderated by Tobias Endler.
Biographies
Emily Schultheis is a reporter with POLITICO’s California-based ballot measures team. She came to Los Angeles from Berlin, where she reported on the rise of far-right parties and elections across a dozen European countries for POLITICO, The Atlantic, Foreign Policy, The Associated Press, The New York Times and others. Emily was a 2023 Livingston Award finalist for her profile of an Austrian doctor plagued by anti-vaccine trolls and has held reporting fellowships from the Institute of Current World Affairs, the Robert Bosch Foundation, the International Center for Journalists and the East-West Center.
Before moving to Berlin in 2017, Emily covered U.S. national politics for POLITICO, National Journal and CBS News. A San Francisco Bay Area native, she holds a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and a M.A. from Central European University.
Tessniem Kadiri is a TV reporter & presenter for the socio-political ARD children's and youth format, presenter and author of the TikTok news channel "nicetoknow" (WDR Newsroom), and freelance journalist residing in Cologne. She became interested in journalism at age 15, when she stood in front of the microphone for the youth editorial department of my local radio station for the first time. Since then, her passion and involvement in journalism, media, and broadcasting has only grown, and has also gone on to learn and speak 5 languages - German, Arabic, English, French, and Spanish.
This event is part of a series of online talks with young voters from both sides of the Atlantic:
Across the Pond – Politics, Power, Participation
Young Voters Talk
Politicians are being attacked, elections are deemed “rigged”, democratic institutions are called into question, checks and balances seem to cause constant gridlock, and extremists are gaining ground… 2024 looks like an election year that seemingly doesn’t offer much hope for the future - neither in Europe, nor the United States. In this series, we will hear from young voters from both sides of the Atlantic who share their ideas about how to move forward. More…