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Far-Right Surges in German Election; Merz Claims Win for Conservatives in Germany's Snap Election; Zelenskyy Speaks Out on Trump; Musk Threatens to Fire Federal Workers Who Don't Justify Jobs; Update on Pope Francis' Health. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired February 24, 2025 - 04:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[04:00:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a devastating defeat for the Social Democrats, one of the worst in the party's history.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm very grateful for what J.D. Vance said, addressing that democracy is at stake and free speech in Germany is really under pressure.

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: My relationship with President Trump, it's never was in such best way.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He said, please tell the people to pray with me and for me. Please tell them I'm comfortable and I love them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We must support the Pope at this moment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: Live from London, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Max Foster.

FOSTER: Hello and a warm welcome to our viewers joining us from around the world. I'm Max Foster. It is Monday.

It is February 24th, 9 a.m. here in London, 10 a.m. across Germany, where preliminary results in Sunday's snap election showed the opposition Conservatives winning the vote. The party leader, Friedrich Merz, now on track to become the next chancellor.

But the Alternative for Germany party came in second in the strongest showing for a far-right party since World War II. They say it shows they can't be ignored. Earlier, the leader of the Conservatives had this to say about the way forward.

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FRIEDRICH MERZ, CHRISTIAN DEMOCRATIC UNION LEADER (through translator): My absolute priority will be to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that step by step we can really achieve independence from the United States. But at the very least, after Donald Trump's statements last week, it is clear that the Americans, at least this part of the Americans in this administration, are largely indifferent to the fate of Europe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Despite those words, U.S. President Trump is celebrating the election results and suggesting the opposition win signals a global shift towards conservative movements. In a social media post, Mr. Trump framed the result in Germany as a rejection to policies on immigration and energy, drawing parallels between that country and the U.S.

Meanwhile, German Chancellor Scholz called the defeat a bitter result for his Social Democrats. He defended his government's track record and said he's led Germany through dangerous times.

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OLAF SCHOLZ, GERMAN CHANCELLOR (through translator): This legislative period has been marked by enormous challenges. Two flight hours from us, a terrible war is taking place, which Russia continues to wage against Ukraine. And every day, people die.

Streets are destroyed, railway lines, villages and towns are destroyed. People die, and there is still no end in sight. Through this time, we and the government, led by me, have guided Germany safely as a supporter of Ukraine, but also as someone who ensures that the war does not expand.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: CNN's Melissa Bell joins us from Berlin with the latest. So what can you tell us about the new Chancellor of Germany, who will have this crucial role heading up Europe's most powerful economy?

MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: He will, and before that, he certainly has his cloth cut out for him, since he's going to have to form this coalition. He sounded this optimistic note last night, Max, that he believed he could achieve this by Easter. But it does seem a tall task, given how fragmented the political landscape is now.

This, of course, because of that surge, as you said, in the AfD's result, doubling their score, becoming the second force in German politics, a remarkable result when you consider where they came from. This is, as Alice Weidel was just reminding us in that press conference, a relatively recent party that has benefited hugely from the dissatisfaction that exists here in Germany, and specifically in those parts of the former Eastern Germany, about the state of the economy, but more than that, about the question of immigration.

The AfD's policy on Ukraine, of course, a starkly different one to the ones of the establishment parties. They want to stop the shipments of aid to Ukraine, and very much in line with the current American administration, for Moscow and Kyiv to sit down and sort it out, that this war should come to an end. So, there is this rupture that so many Germans have voted for. As

Alice Weidel and her co-chair were just reminding us in that press conference, 10 million Germans voted for a huge shift in German politics.

Of course, they are also a party that will not be in power. Friedrich Merz has ruled this out, saying that he will hold firm with the firewall that has existed here in Germany since the end of World War II.

[04:05:00]

But I think one of the most interesting things about what's happened last night, even as we look ahead to this horse trading that will begin even now between the parties, to see whether and how quickly they can form a coalition to try and face those crucial challenges, things like the faltering German economy, the largest in Europe, but, of course, the question of immigration to speak to voter dissatisfaction.

That political force, the AfD, knows it will not be in power. Friedrich Merz has ruled it out, says he will stick to the firewall. They are very much looking ahead to the next vote in four years and believe that they can continue building on that dissatisfaction.

So this is the difficulty now for these more centrist politicians, and specifically the CDU that is likely to take power with coalition partners, how to address these key changes that need to take place in Germany, even as the AfD is now snapping at their heels.

FOSTER: I'm wondering if you're feeling echoes from the French election, which, of course, you covered as well, and many other elections across Europe. People are often quite dismissive of the far right because they haven't been getting into power, but they are becoming the dominant parties within parliament, so that will help them steer debates and policy that way. So what would you say we're speaking to here in terms of the general shift towards the right in Europe?

BELL: I think it's a great question, Max, because what we've seen in Germany here, not just with the result but throughout the campaign, is a concentration of what's happened in so many European countries. That surge in the far right, that surge in dissatisfaction in many countries, the surge in the number of parliamentary seats that are now in the hands of far right parties who tend to have these themes in common. Some of them are more Eurosceptic than others.

Alice Weidel's party, for instance, is very Eurosceptic. It is at the heart of why it was founded in 2013. Marine Le Pen, with a national rally in France, has shifted her stance away from Euroscepticism, certainly away from leaving the euro, to focus on other issues, including immigration.

So there are many different hues within the European political spectrum of these far right parties. But they do have in common, they tend to have in common, a rejection of Brussels, a closing of their borders, and are much more in line with the policies on many fronts of the current administration. And the current American administration knows this, which is, I think, why you've seen this interference, according to some here in Germany, in their own politics.

But it's happened with the tweets of Elon Musk and what we heard from J.D. Vance at the Munich Security Conference. Senior American officials understand this, and they understand that there is power in fracturing Europe, and that that fracturing will come from the far right.

So this is a crucial result, not just in terms of the future of Germany, but given the position that Germany has within Europe, it's not just this economic powerhouse, but political leader of the European Union and European federalism over the course of the last few decades.

It is fascinating that such a large proportion of the German electorate are now voting against that. And remember that on this question of her relative Euroscepticism, Alice Weidel is quite clear that it isn't simply opposition to Brussels. What she is looking for is an ordered withdrawal from the euro, which is a quite astonishing position when you consider the importance to Germany of things like its exports and to its economy.

That is a fairly radical position. Still one she has been firm on throughout her campaign. And this is something that 10 million Germans have voted for -- Max.

FOSTER: OK, Melissa Bell in Berlin, thank you so much for your analysis today.

Now, Ukraine's president marking the third anniversary of Russia's full scale invasion with praise for the people of Ukraine.

In a post on Platform X, Mr. Zelenskyy writes, three years of resistance, three years of gratitude, three years of absolute heroism of Ukrainians. I'm proud of Ukraine.

He also shared this video.

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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator) (voice- over): Than you to our warriors for their bravery -- you are the best in the world. Three years of full-scale ware is a very long time, but the Ukrainian people have defended their right to independence and to a state of their own. Thank you all for your support!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: This comes as President Trump's envoy predicts Kyiv will agree to a mineral rights deal with the U.S. this week. But Zelenskyy told CNN he hopes the U.S. won't freeze military support in the process.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ZELENSKYY: As I said, we want successful agreement. And if we will understand each other with partners, I hope that it will be. We will sign this the first agreement or memo, memo on which base we will. I mean, I will prepare other documents.

So I hope that it will not have influence on other steps of the United States and they will not cancel or stop or freeze any support, especially military support to Ukraine. That's crucial for us.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The president.

ZELENSKYY: My relationship with President Trump. It's never was in such -- it's never was in such best way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Let's bring in CNN's Clare Sebastian here with us in London. When we talk about that relationship, it's obviously defined by what President Trump said, describing Zelenskyy as a dictator.

Interesting to see another part of that press conference, President Zelenskyy actually offering to resign effectively. So saying, well, if you do think I'm a dictator, I will go. But there's a negotiation to be done there, too.

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I think this is really calling on all of his leadership and I think rhetorical skills, which he has shown over the past three years, how to deal now as we are in the third anniversary of the war with this biggest, perhaps reversal in U.S. foreign policy in living memory. It's gone from a country that sort of has elevated him, allowed him to speak for a joint session of Congress. Remember that Biden offered him a ride out of the country at the beginning of the war to one that, you know, publicly attacks him and is publicly parroting the Kremlin line on pushing for elections in Ukraine, which seeks to delegitimize him.

So he essentially called that bluff. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENSKYY: As I said, we want successful agreement. And if we will understand each other with partners, I hope that it will be. We will sign this -- the first agreement or memo, memo on which base we will -- I mean, I will prepare other documents.

So I hope that it will not have influence on other steps of the United States and they will not cancel or stop or freeze any support, especially military support to Ukraine. That's crucial for us.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The President?

ZELENSKYY: My relationship with President Trump? It's never was in such best way.

(END VIDEO CLIP) SEBASTIAN: So you got to hear that one again. But the one that we wanted to play was where he essentially says, look, I will resign if it means that Ukraine is protected, can join NATO. And we know that security guarantees for Ukraine are the biggest critical issue now for Zelenskyy.

He's in a situation where the U.S. wants, you know, the access to the critical minerals as a quid pro quo for future aid. And he is saying that he's not going to sign a deal that doesn't include some kind of security guarantees.

FOSTER: Obviously, joining NATO is the red line for Russia. So it's interesting how he bouts that back to President Trump, who's the only person who's currently in negotiations with Russia. And how he will handle that, because, you know, isn't Zelenskyy just playing Trump at his own game, playing hardball and saying, yes, we can do a deal. But there's the negotiation on both sides here.

SEBASTIAN: Yes. And I think at this point, you know, it's he's probably feeling like he's got very little to lose. The U.S., you know, in those talks in Brussels a week or so ago, essentially let the cat out of the bag. Pete Hegseth, although he then sort of moderated those remarks later, the new defense secretary saying that that basically was off the table -- NATO for Ukraine is part of a peace settlement and that Ukraine shouldn't expect either to return to its pre-2014 borders, which led to, you know, a level of alarm in Europe, which we now see playing out as well.

FOSTER: We're looking at live pictures here from Kyiv. Explain what's happening here today on this key anniversary.

SEBASTIAN: So they are holding essentially a forum to mark the third anniversary of the war. I think, you know, it's worth pointing out. You see sort of top officials that are sitting there that this is all happening at a very hot, very active stage in the conflict.

We saw record numbers of drones fired over the weekend, 267 in one night. There was another massive attack using drones overnight into this morning. So this is you know, it's not about necessarily just peace talks.

Ukraine is still very much trying to fight back against this adversary, which is moving forward on the front lines and continues to attack way beyond the front lines at Ukrainian cities. And I think, you know, for Russia, the strategy of attrition, of essentially trying to outlast Ukraine and its allies to exhaust the enemy in submission, that has got them at this point all the way to the negotiating table, a bilateral, I should say, negotiating table with the U.S. So they are not backing down from this position. So we see Zelenskyy chairing this meeting now.

FOSTER: Yes, we'll bring the highlights later on. Thank you very much, Clare, that you're listening to that.

And our beams of light illuminated the skies over a cemetery in the Ukrainian city of Lviv on Sunday. The display is called Lights of Memory and honors Ukrainians killed in the war with Russia. Hundreds of people gathered to mourn and commemorate the fallen during a service on Sunday. In Brussels, European Union buildings were lit in the colors of the Ukrainian flag to mark the war's third year anniversary.

Since the beginning of the conflict, the EU has remained a refuge for millions of displaced Ukrainians.

[04:15:00]

And scenes of solemn remembrance on Sunday in Athens and around the world on the eve of today's anniversary of Russia's invasion. Meanwhile, in Paris, thousands of protesters joined by elected officials and Ukrainian refugees alike gathered on Sunday. They chanted anti-Putin and anti-Trump slogans as they marched to the square where the Bastille once stood.

Now, the U.S. Agency for International Development began gutting the ranks of its staff overnight as part of the Trump administration's efforts to dismantle the agency. Leaders told 2,000 employees by e- mail on Sunday that they would be laid off just before midnight Eastern time. With most remaining agency staff being put on administrative leave. A small number of employees will remain in their jobs to keep working on the few humanitarian projects deemed essential by the Trump administration.

The FBI, the State Department and the Department of Defense were amongst a handful of U.S. agencies pushing back against an order for their staffers to justify their jobs. The Office of Personnel Management sent a mass e-mail to federal employees over the weekend demanding they respond with five bullet points detailing what they did on the job last week.

The deadline is the end of the day on Monday. The e-mail doesn't mention any consequences, but a tweet from Elon Musk does. The man heading the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency said if workers don't respond in time, it'll be considered their resignation.

Senior leadership at several agencies have told their workers not to respond to the e-mail at all. CNN's Kevin Liptak has more from the White House.

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KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: This e-mail that has been sent to all federal workers has injected a new layer of uncertainty into the federal workforce that had already been rattled by the first month of Trump's administration. And it's not just rank and file members of the federal workforce. Now it also includes senior managers, including Trump appointees, who are trying to discern, one, whether this e-mail that federal employees received over the weekend is legitimate, and two, what to guide their workers to do going forward.

And I think this all really began when President Trump said on social media that he thought Elon Musk was doing a good job in rooting out waste, fraud and abuse from the federal government, but that he wanted him to be more aggressive going forward. Elon Musk followed that up with his own post, saying that federal workers would receive an e-mail asking them to recount their last week at work and saying if they didn't respond, they would be fired.

A few hours later, federal employees started receiving those e-mails in their inboxes, asking them to list out five bullet points of what they did last week and respond no later than 11:59 p.m. on Monday. And, of course, that launched a whole amount of uncertainty into the federal workforce.

And what you saw on Sunday was a number of different agencies start to tell their workers not to respond. So, for example, at the Pentagon, a leader there sent an e-mail to the workforce that said the Department of Defense is responsible for reviewing the performance of its personnel and will conduct any review in accordance with its own procedures.

You saw something similar from Kash Patel, the new director at the FBI, who said, for now, please pause any responses. And at the State Department, a senior undersecretary e-mailed the workforce there that said the State Department would respond on behalf of the agency to this e-mail.

So what you're starting to see is some daylight emerging between senior Trump officials at these agencies and Elon Musk and his DOGE department here at the White House, really for the first time, really setting up what seems to be a standoff between some of these Trump officials and Musk to see exactly how far his power expands within the federal government.

I think what is unclear so far is whether Musk's assertion on social media that failure to reply to this e-mail will result in termination. What no one has been able to say is whether that threat is actually actionable. In fact, the leader of a federal union has said it might not be legal.

He says that instead, this is all intended to be cruel and disrespectful to federal workers and says what he reflects is the White House's utter disdain for the federal workforce. You heard something similar from a Republican senator on Sunday speaking to CBS. Listen to what he said.

SEN. JOHN CURTIS (R-UT): If I could say one thing to Elon Musk, it's like, please put a dose of compassion in this. These are real people. These are real lives. These are mortgages. It's a false narrative to say we have to cut and you have to be cruel to do it as well. We can do both.

LIPTAK: So you hear John Curtis there telling Musk to inject some compassion into this effort.

[04:20:00]

But I think at the end of the day, it's that lack of compassion that really is part of the goal here, ultimately, to try and make the federal workforce such an unpleasant place to work for some of these workers that they resign on their own.

Already, President Trump has seen some success on this. Seventy five thousand federal workers taking a buyout offer, many thousands more already being laid off. Now, federal workers contending with a new degree of certainty as they look to see how to respond to this new email.

Kevin Liptak, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: As confusion and fear grow across the federal workforce, President Trump is showing no sympathy. He shared a SpongeBob SquarePants meme on his true social account on Sunday, ridiculing the situation government employees are facing. The image offered a mock bullet point checklist for last week, reading, cried about Trump, cried about Elon, made it into the office for once, read some e-mails, cried about Trump and Elon some more.

Now, the Vatican says Pope Francis is responding to treatment but is still struggling with complex medical issues that landed him in hospital over a week ago. An update on his condition just ahead.

Plus, Israel is putting on a show of force in the occupied West Bank, sending tanks into the Palestinian Territory for the first time in two decades.

And the death toll in Kentucky rises following a devastating storm that brought fatal floods and damaging winds. We'll have the details.

[04:25:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: The Vatican says Pope Francis had a good night in hospital. He slept, he's resting. That follows news that the Pope is now experiencing mild kidney failure. And while it's said to be under control, it's another unwelcome health complication for the 88-year- old. He remains in critical condition as he fights double pneumonia in hospital.

The Vatican says he's still on oxygen but hasn't suffered another acute respiratory crisis as he did on Saturday. Still, CNN medical analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner says this new development on the Pope's condition is worrisome.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: In a critically ill patient like the Pope, the kidneys are sort of the proverbial canary in the coal mine. And once you start to see kidney function deteriorate, that is often a very ominous sign. And coming 24 hours after what sounds like an urgent episode where the Pope had difficulty breathing and needed to be placed on high-flow oxygen, the decline in his kidney function suggests a significant deterioration in his overall status.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Barbi Latza Nadeau joins us from Rome. I mean, I know that you're dealing with these very incremental updates there in Rome. But if you take a full picture of, you know, and sum them up over the past week, there has been a very worrying trend here for Catholics around the world.

BARBIE LATZA NADEAU, CNN REPORTER: Yes, you know, Max, I mean, everyone's very, very concerned about him. 88 years old, mobility problems, this kind of chronic lung respiratory issue that's now turned into this double pneumonia. There's a lot of concern.

One of the things that we're finding is that we're getting a little bit more detail from the Vatican in the afternoon bulletins. And that apparently comes from the Pope wanting to be transparent. And so he wants people to know just how -- the reality of the situation, which is very critical at the moment.

This morning, we got a slight bulletin that said that he is resting. That's the first time we didn't get, he's having breakfast, he had a good night, he got up, so he's resting now.

You know, everyone is very, very concerned. You see people gathering to offer prayers, offer support. On Wednesday, of course, this week is Ash Wednesday. He should be leading the procession for Ash Wednesday at a church in Rome. Obviously, those plans will not take place. Someone else is going to have to do that.

But it's a really important time for the Catholic Church. The Jubilee year, Lent is starting, and the Pope, 11 days in the hospital right here behind me -- Max.

FOSTER: In terms of how the Vatican is handling it, as you say, they have opened up. Do you feel that the Pope is having very hands-on involvement in these updates? Because, you know, at the back of his mind, ever since he took the papacy, he's always thinking, he has to think, doesn't he, about, you know, ultimate handover of control, because that's what, you know, any Pope has to do, any monarch has to do.

NADEAU: Yes, you know, I mean, of course, this is something that he's even spoken about in the past, about his weakness, about his health issues. He signed a letter that would say he will resign if he becomes incapacitated. But I think we're a long way from that exact moment right now, because he's still, as we understand, recovering.

He's responding to the treatment. He's being treated actively. And we understand that yesterday, on Sunday, while he didn't deliver his Angelus Prayer, which he does every Sunday, well, the last two Sundays he didn't, of course, he did write it himself, and he thanked those medical personnel who are attending to him, and he thanked all those people praying for him. And we understand that those words came directly from him. We also have understood, certainly last week, even as his condition

was getting worse, he was working with his closest collaborators who are here at the hospital behind me and who are working with him. So there is interaction.

Everyone who's talked to him and seen him, including his doctors who gave a press conference last week, said that he's lucid, that he is very much in charge, that he still has a sense of humor, that he's still responding. So we can take, you know, kind of read the tea leaves to understand that he's not just lying in a hospital bed up there doing nothing. He's active, certainly in thought, if not physically -- Max.

FOSTER: OK, Barbie in Rome, thank you.

Now, backlash over federal layoffs. More on why a Republican lawmaker got booed by a crowd of angry voters who were asking him to stand up for them. That is next.

And much more on the outcome in Germany as well. The winner signaling it's no longer business as usual. We'll look at what that could mean for relations with Donald Trump's America.