TRANSCRIPT March 05, 2018 NEWS PROGRAM JUDY DEMPSEY, NON-RESIDENT SENIOR FELLOW, CARNEGIE EUROPE BERLIN JUDY DEMPSEY, NON-RESIDENT SENIOR FELLOW, CARNEGIE EUROPE BERLIN, IS INTERVIEWED ON BLOOMBERG TELEVISION Bloomberg Government Support: 1-877-498-3587 www.bgov.com Copyright 2018. Provided under license from Bloomberg Government. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and/or license from Bloomberg Government, and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of Bloomberg Government. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content. JUDY DEMPSEY, NON-RESIDENT SENIOR FELLOW, CARNEGIE EUROPE BERLIN, IS INTERVIEWED ON BLOOMBERG TELEVISION MARCH 5, 2018 SPEAKERS: JUDY DEMPSEY, NON-RESIDENT SENIOR FELLOW, CARNEGIE EUROPE BERLIN GUY JOHNSON, BLOOMBERG NEWS MATT MILLER, BLOOMBERG NEWS

MILLER: Joining us now is Judy Dempsey, a fellow at Carnegie Europe in Berlin. The author of the book, "The Merkel Phenomenon", Judy, thanks so much for joining us this morning.

I was a little bit surprised, yesterday, by the margin with which the SPD voted to join this coalition. I thought it would be very close, and yet they agreed - - 66 percent agreed to join a coalition.

Does that show a really strong win for Merkel here?

DEMPSEY: Well, it shows a really strong win for actually the designate leader of the Social Democrats, Andrea Nahles. This aspiring potential leader in Germany of the future, really rallied around the rank and file, this is a highly skeptical party going into the coalition and very against it.

And, Nahles went out to the towns and the villages, and the cities, and rallied and got their party behind her. So, hats off to Nahles and maybe, Chancellor Merkel, also something.

MILLER: So, while Chancellor Merkel - - we're used to her winning and making the right decisions. In fact, it was odd to see her stumble a little bit over the past two months. The SPF has made a series of blunders that were almost comical in...