Chris Bowlby

No, it's just describing reality. But if you use a word like crime, that's really getting people in a very aggressive mood, isn't it? I think the politics have to face that we are responsible for our people in the countries. Of course migration policies in Europe are a crime. And of course our engagement in Ukraine is a crime. Can we have a healthy political debate if people are accusing each other of crimes? No.

Many regret the use of the harsh language of crime to heat up the debate, but it still resonates in a country deeply worried about the future of high-quality jobs once the mainstay of German prosperity. The debate's happening everywhere in Zwickau, including among those at the huge Volkswagen factory now making only electric cars. Exactly. I was really happy. I always say when I tell someone that that was my lottery win.

Peter Springfeld is about to retire from VW. He still remembers vividly the joy he felt in the early 1990s when he got one of the prized jobs at Zwickaus new car factory. He showed me old photos of the production line.

But as production shifted to electric vehicles a little under a decade ago, he and his colleagues began to have doubts about the quality and overall appeal of electric cars, especially to those who see themselves as lovers of the internal combustion engine. What do the cars look like? Cars don't look nice.

And inside there's just a small display here and there. There was also a problem, especially with the Volkswagen cars, there were problems with the software. But with the Chinese cars, they seem to work better somehow.

An early sense then that these new cars would lack appeal and that Chinese competition might completely undermine that electric change promoted by Angela Merkel. Peter Sun Jakob, the climate change campaigner, has watched how the AFD has exploited this anxiety among the workforce, challenging the power of traditional trade unions.

It sounds from what you're saying as if you've been through personal experiences since you got involved in politics that have made you rethink a lot of your views. I don't want to make politics only for my own bubble.

There's been a lot of focus on the idea of petrol cars and the idea that it would be illegal to own a petrol car is the claim that's made. Do you think this is a big issue? Especially in Zwickau, the people see the cars as a symbol of freedom. And now it becomes a sign for economic wealth and good living in Zwickau.

For us it is a question of freedom. Local AFD MP Matthias Morsdorf is also alert to car's symbolic power. We don't like Brussels with all the law restrictions. Brussels is the EU. It's the EU, yes, of course. So the car is a powerful symbol, you think? The petrol car?

Petrolauta, kaikki tavallaan, on symboli. Jos meillä olisi infrastruktuuria kuten Suomessa, toivottavasti ihmiset ajattelisivat erilaista. Joten 1989 jälkeen oli paljon uutta infrastruktuuria Eestis-Germaniaan, mutta se oli ennen elektroninen revolutio. Joten nyt puhutaan uutta infrastruktuuria, jotta elektroninen revolutio voisi toimia.

Tänäisen vuoden ajan kohdallinen kohdallinen kohdallinen kohdallinen kohdallinen kohdallinen kohdallinen

For many in his community, says Peter Springfeld, voting is shaped most by gut reaction to what's seen as change imposed by distant elites. A lot of people say that they want to be left in peace. They don't want to be told by them up there what sort of car to drive, what heating system to install. They want to decide everything for themselves. You're listening to the documentary from the BBC World Service.

Zwickau, a town I first visited when it was part of communist East Germany, has improved hugely in many ways. Buildings have been restored, there's been much new investment. The generations who came of age after 1989 have welcomed new opportunities. So we're here in a car park near the center of Zwickau with the town's mayor, Konstantin Arnt, and you're showing us your official car. What sort of a car is this?

I was always a politically interested person.

She too hasn't escaped the growing polarisation and rancour, needing personal protection after an anonymous death threat. She sees one of her key roles as trying to hold things together as the town faces necessary change.

Constance Arnt has seen a compelling vision of this attractive electric mobility future, but in her travels to China, not locally in Germany. That, she believes, has frightening implications for Zwickau. The Chinese are much, much further on. They are very clever. And if we don't stick to this, then in ten years there will be no German or European car industry.

Sitten ostamme, kuten ostamme huoneita, joita on tehty Aasissa, myös autoja, joita on tehty Aasissa. Se on erinomainen, mitä sinä sanot. Olet varma, että 10 vuotta sitten voisi olla ei-Germannin auto-yhteisö, jos me jatketaan näin.

If you want to know why this might matter so much politically, there's a striking European example not far from Zwickau in the Czech Republic. We're heading now for a place where motor politics is already much more advanced.

Kansainvälisestä lopulta, mitä oli Turet-Sovakia, järjestelmät ovat pysyneet paremmin. Täällä, Praagassa, on autoja, bansseja, turistibusseja, tramsiä, jotka sopivat ilmastoon. Voin myös nähdä järjestelmää, jolla aloitettiin kaupungit muutamia vuosia sitten. Tämä vaikuttaa yksi arvokas poliittinen poliitikko vahvistamaan, mitä hän kutsutaan vihreämpää, järjestelmää syrjintää järjestelmää ja vahvistaa kaupunkien käyttäjät käyttämään metroa.

Tällä hetkellä se tuli poliittiselle partiin Motoristit itselleen, jossa on nyt kolme ministeriä Tulevaisuuden kansallisen hallituksessa. Täällä! Tässä! Tässä! Tässä! Tässä! Tässä! Tässä! Tässä! Tässä! Tässä! Tässä! Tässä! Tässä! Tässä! Tässä! Tässä! Tässä! Tässä! Tässä! Tässä! Tässä! Tässä! Tässä! Tässä! Tässä! Tässä! Tässä! Tässä! Tässä! Tässä! Tässä! Tässä! Tässä! Tässä! Tässä! Tässä! Tässä! Tässä! Tässä! Tässä! Tässä! Tässä! Tässä! Tässä! Tässä! Tässä! Tässä! Tässä! Tässä! Tässä! Tässä! Tässä! Tässä! Tässä! Tässä! Tässä! Tässä! Tässä! Tässä!