Gavin Grey: UK correspondent on Germany's AfD winning historic victory in state election

0:00Gavin Gray, UK correspondent with us. Now hi, Gavin. Hi there, Heather. What do you make of the AFD in Germany getting this poll result? Yeah, this is a big, big moment in German electoral history. The far right party alternative for Deutschland or AFD has now been cleared as a decisive victory in Germany's eastern state of Saxony and Holt. And not just was it a victory, it was a big victory. They've secured 43.8% of the vote. The conservative CDU, one of the big parties, normally just 17%. So less than half that vote. These are interim results. We don't know them yet. Saxony and Holtz, a small population, just 2.1 million. But the AFD is very, very popular there. And it looks like they are probably going to get 39 seats of the 83 seat Parliament. So that is slightly shorter than 42, required for an outmire majority. But these are preliminary results.

1:01But it sends a huge alarm bill around Germany now to say, look, the alternative of Deutschland, which is pro-Russian. What would that mean for Ukraine? Is looking to try and minimize references to Hitler in history books and teaching and so forth. And he's very anti-migration. So all of those things are going to come into play now. And we're going to see how these negotiations get on to form some kind of a working majority. Now the leaders of AFD say we're not going to just form some kind of a coalition for the sake of it. If necessary, we'll call another election in order to try and get an outright majority. But the mechanism of that is far from clear. OK. These anti-migrant protests that are happening. Is someone organizing them? Yes. And very well organized, actually. It's a guy called Danny Tomo or Daniel Thomas, his full name. He isn't associated with the better known far right activist, Tommy Robinson. He was live streaming the latest incident. So last night, our time, hundreds of protesters gathered in Portsmouth.

2:04Portsmouth right down pretty much in the middle of the South Coast of England. And they were there because a boat carrying around 140 migrants in a single dinghy were rescued in the English Channel and brought ashore there. And now this is extraordinary. I think it's the first time that one of these migrant dinghy says ever actually come ashore in Hampshire. Mostly they're down to the extreme South East Coast and the fear is now this will open up a new route in. But what the protesters doing were all in black. It seemed almost entirely men wearing face coverings at Balaklava's were trying to prevent the coaches that had been pulled up by the British government. So we're trying to prevent those coaches from leaving the city area and going to an immigration processing center. And they didn't succeed. There was a dispersal order that was limited and now pushing and towing and throwing with the police. But pretty limited and they pledging to carry on more saying we must stop the boats.

3:05But this is the second incident in just two days. The first was down at the Dover down at the very busy, very busy. Okay, so they want to stop the boats. But the boats are arriving. I mean, the problem isn't had your border is at the French border. So what are they hoping to achieve? I think they're hoping to pressure the government into the whole immigration thing becoming unworkable and so unpopular that in the end they hope to get the government to be more serious about stopping it at source. In other words, in the EU. Okay, I see what you say. All right. Now how do you go about petitioning the king? What's the process? Very complicated. This from the Jamaican government, which is meeting today the king and are going to present two King Charles of petition over slavery reparations. So the petition asks for three questions. The judicial committee of the privy council, the country's highest court is going to be asked over the legality of the enslavement of Africans in Jamaica. And the three questions are whether the enslavement of Africans in Jamaica was legal under British law, whether it broke international law,

4:10and whether Britain now has a legal duty to provide redress. Well, back in 2015, the then Prime Minister David Cameron ruled out making reparations, saying it was a very sorry saga, but it all been sort of done and dealt with because when it was abolished in 1833 across most of the British Empire, the British government paid then $45 million New Zealand dollars to slave owners in compensation, but that of course was to the slave owners and not to the slaves. Incidentally, the loans taken out in 1833 were only paid off a decade ago. Now, of course, the Jamaicans appear to be coming back and wanting money for those reparations. I think the government is saying we'll listen to you. We need to work together to improve both countries, etc. But I don't see any money forthcoming because of course, if they start with one country, there will be an awful lot more coming down the road. Yeah, too right. Gavin, thank you very much. As always, good to talk to you. Gavin Gray, UK correspondent.