蜜芽传媒

Germans headed to the ballot box in February 2025 to decide the new national government. In Ludwigshafen, a Rhineland city that is emblematic of the sudden economic shocks battering the nation's industrial heartlands, ordinary Germans are questioning their loyalty to mainstream parties. Jeremy Cliffe meets local leaders and voters to see whether the populists who have been surging in the east can expect similar results here on the back of profound economic discontent.

Producer: Jeanny Gering
Presenter: Jeremy Cliffe
Executive Producer: Robert Nicholson

With field recording by Phoebe McIndoe

A Whistledown production for 蜜芽传媒 Radio 4