Germany After the Election: Implications for Europe and the World
November 4th, 2026 5:30PM -7:00PM
Event Description
Germany has long been a political and economic anchor of the European Union. Today, however, its domestic politics are becoming more fragmented, reflecting pressures on traditional political parties that are playing out across Europe. Recent elections have shown growing support for parties outside Germany’s traditional political center, most notably the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).
What is driving these changes, and what do they tell us about Germany’s political direction? At a moment when Europe is confronting its own political shifts alongside major economic and security challenges, how might changes at home affect Germany’s ability to lead abroad?
Join the World Affairs Council of Seattle for a conversation about Germany’s changing political landscape and what it could mean for Europe and the transatlantic relationship.
About Our Speaker
Vladimir Balzer is an award-winning journalist who grew up in Leipzig and studied in Dublin, Venice, and Leipzig. He began his career as a presenter, reporter, and editor at Deutschlandradio and MDR. Mr. Balzer hosts, among other programs, the daily program “Fazit – Kultur vom Tage” on Deutschlandfunk Kultur. In 2022, he was selected to be a Kellen Fellow by the American Council on Germany. In 2023, he started as a correspondent at Deutschlandfunk’s capital city studio in Berlin. He is known as a commentator for German television, such as ZDF. He also regularly reports for his broadcaster from the U.S.
About Our Moderator
Heidi Obermeyer is a Senior Strategist for Responsible AI at Google where she helps develop and scale governance of Google's AI products. Previously she worked in geopolitical consulting with a focus on the tech industry and supply chains at Expeditors International in Seattle. She has also worked on technology public policy at trade associations in Washington, DC. She was a 2017/2018 German Chancellor Fellow at the German Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin where her research focused on the impact of geopolitical issues on small and medium-sized businesses. She has participated in the Manfred Woerner Seminar with the German Army, the Taiwan-US Policy Program with CSIS, and the German-American Dialogue with the American-German Institute at Johns Hopkins University. She holds a MA in political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a BA in international relations, germanic studies, and anthropology from the University of Colorado at Boulder.