Euroscopic Podcast

If Israel gets its way, the EU will be dragged kicking and screaming into global security relevance. Israel’s double-whammy assassinations of top Hizbollah and Hamas leaders is yet another drip-drip drop closer to making much of the Middle East look like Gaza. In addition to the mortifying human cost on the ground, that would have serious and scary implications for the European Union, which is once again reminded that it isn’t all that far away.The EU, thanks to rules on unanimous agreement among its 27 members, can’t even issue a quick and clear condemnation of seemingly rigged elections in Venezuela. Viktor Orbán appears to have relented shortly after this episode was recorded, but the delay shows how ham-fisted one of the largest and richest political areas on earth is when it comes to having a meaningful role on said planet.While he’s busy blocking statements, Orbán is readying Hungary to unblock Russian access to the EU. That has Manfred Weber rather upset. Better late than never?That, plus weak rule of law in Italy are great reasons to bring back friends of the pod and EUO reporting talents, Andrew Rettmann and Valentina Saini.Listen in and stay tuned as we further develop this venture with our partner, EUobserver. We welcome your feedback, so be in touch! You can subscribe hereand get us where your ears go for podcasts:* Apple Podcasts* Spotify* EUObserverAmong other things, Martin Gak writes Inconclusive Thoughts; and William Glucroft writes The ‘Schland. We’d love to see you over there, too!As a tiny operation, we do our best to spellcheck, factcheck, and contextualize all the information presented in the podcast. But pobody’s nerfect. If you hear something that doesn’t sound right — write! We welcome your feedback. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit euroscopic.substack.com

Say what you want about democracy, but at least it isn’t boring. That may be the most compelling case right now for the Churchillian worst form of governance except for all the others. Autocrats stay in power for decades, making them pretty banal, but democratic politics have become rather ossified, too. So who knows where the seemingly but definitely not inevitable decision by US President Joe Biden to renounce his claim to a second term will lead, but at least something other than path dependency happened.That leaves Democratic-voter wannabes on this side of the Atlantic with a lot to think about — and comment on. Not that they don’t have enough leaks to plug in their own political ship, as the post-election dust starts to settle at EU institutions. With the top of the European Commission confirmed, largely without far-right support, it was European Parliament’s turn to figure out how to juggle committee chairs to deny the far right as much influence as possible without itself appearing too undemocratic in the process.But as we’ve seen, and said, many times, you don’t need the far right in power for the far right to win. Right now, that pseudo paradox is getting best expressed by the United Kingdom’s new kid on 10 Downing Street. Keir Starmer seems to have confused keeping the bad guys out of power for making sure he and his Labour can stay in it. Play his cards right, and he may just get his wish to have tea with Ursula von der Leyen. All this brings us to a crossroads, and standing in the middle of that crossroads is Julien Hoez. The French, British, and European political analyst is just the person you want walking you through the intersectionality of these issues.Listen in and stay tuned as we further develop this venture with our partner, EUobserver. We welcome your feedback, so be in touch! You can subscribe hereand get us where your ears go for podcasts:* Apple Podcasts* Spotify* EUObserverAmong other things, Martin Gak writes Inconclusive Thoughts; and William Glucroft writes The ‘Schland. We’d love to see you over there, too!As a tiny operation, we do our best to spellcheck, factcheck, and contextualize all the information presented in the podcast. But pobody’s nerfect. If you hear something that doesn’t sound right — write! We welcome your feedback. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit euroscopic.substack.com

A would-be assassin’s bullet didn’t have to kill Donald Trump to fundamentally change the course of the 2024 presidential election in the United States. The incident itself is just the most recent and highest profile example of an apparent increased willingness to resort to political violence. The European Union already felt that in the weeks before its parliamentary elections, as several candidates were the victims of verbal or physical assault. Let’s not forget Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico, who survived five bullets earlier this year.So there is talk all around about “lowering the temperature.” Surely that is on the mind of the European Commission, as it looks for ways to sideline the Viktor Orbán show as Hungary presides over the EU Council. Of course, the Commission’s leader, Ursula von der Leyen, has to survive a parliamentary vote first. She’ll probably get the votes, but how many and from whom is the big question.To try to answer that and other dicey dilemmas, Euroscopic brings on EUO managing editor Elena Sanchez as well as European insider and fellow substacker, Augustin Bourleaud.Listen in and stay tuned as we further develop this venture with our partner, EUobserver. We welcome your feedback, so be in touch! You can subscribe hereand get us where your ears go for podcasts:* Apple Podcasts* Spotify* EUObserverAmong other things, Martin Gak writes Inconclusive Thoughts; and William Glucroft writes The ‘Schland. We’d love to see you over there, too!As a tiny operation, we do our best to spellcheck, factcheck, and contextualize all the information presented in the podcast. But pobody’s nerfect. If you hear something that doesn’t sound right — write! We welcome your feedback. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit euroscopic.substack.com

The results are in and France has gotten itself into a bit of a mess. But seeing that the alternative would have been getting itself deeper into the far right, I guess we can call that a win. But not call it a day — because now comes the hard part. Like most centrist liberals, Emmanuel Macron is no fan of lefty ideas. The left, for its part, is not great at keeping its parts together. So this is definitely a talk-amongst-yourselves moment for all parties involved.Labour is back in power in the United Kingdom, which means … what exactly? Maybe about as much as Viktor Orbán jetsetting off to Moscow and Beijing to play the Great Negotiator. That his country has the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU — pure coincidence, of course.Returning to the pod to get into these issues are EUO’s Piet Ruig and Pascal LeTendre-Hanns. Then we turn to the strange-but-true love affair between the people who brought you antisemitism and the people who claim their whole raison d'État is to protect against it. David Issacharoff of the Israeli daily Haaretz offers his take on what’s going on there.Listen in and stay tuned as we further develop this venture with our partner, EUobserver. We welcome your feedback, so be in touch! You can subscribe hereand get us where your ears go for podcasts:* Apple Podcasts* Spotify* EUObserverAmong other things, Martin Gak writes Inconclusive Thoughts; and William Glucroft writes The ‘Schland. We’d love to see you over there, too!As a tiny operation, we do our best to spellcheck, factcheck, and contextualize all the information presented in the podcast. But pobody’s nerfect. If you hear something that doesn’t sound right — write! We welcome your feedback. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit euroscopic.substack.com

The schizophrenic politics of the European Union continue. On one hand, you have the far-right winning big in France’s first round of parliamentary elections and Eurosceptic Viktor Orbán taking over the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union (not to be confused with the European Council, which of course no one would ever do). On the other hand, you’ve got a trio of solid centrist and pro-EU personalities set to lead the bloc — and possibly without having to pander to the far-right (or whatever Giorgia Meloni’s ECR says it is) for their votes.All said, there are ample arguments to be made for both the sky is falling and that everything will be OK. EUO’s Andrew Rettman returns to talk foremost about Hungary’s presidency and Pascal LeTendre-Hanns shares insights into French politics right now.No matter how uncertain European policymakers might be about the future of their side of the Atlantic, they may be even more worried about the other side. That Biden-Trump debate was a doozy, eh? In the spirit of the Fourth of July (at least at time of recording), we’ll have a look at how the Olde World is looking at the old men vying to lead the “New” World.Listen in and stay tuned as we further develop this venture with our partner, EUobserver. We welcome your feedback, so be in touch! You can subscribe hereand get us where your ears go for podcasts:* Apple Podcasts* Spotify* EUObserverAmong other things, Martin Gak writes Inconclusive Thoughts; and William Glucroft writes The ‘Schland. We’d love to see you over there, too!As a tiny operation, we do our best to spellcheck, factcheck, and contextualize all the information presented in the podcast. But pobody’s nerfect. If you hear something that doesn’t sound right — write! We welcome your feedback. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit euroscopic.substack.com

News doldrums, silly season, Sommerloch. There are many names for the summertime off-season, when there isn’t much to report except the sunburns of politicians as they run off to the beach with everyone else. This summer, however, is shaping up to be anything but slow. The long days are sure to be filled with horse-trading and hand-wringing of all kinds.Both the United Kingdom and France hold snap elections around the same time in early July. Neither result is likely to be very pretty. Meanwhile, Hungary will be rotating in to run the Council of the EU, while the EU itself figures out what its next parliament and commission are going to look like. Amid all that, outgoing Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, will be stepping into NATO’s top civilian post (leaving behind a country that is more extreme right than ever).Oh, and if Israel declares war on Hezbollah, Hezbollah may declare war on Cyprus — an EU member. Probably not, but just the idea of that is enough to underscore how big the gap is between talk of European defense and actually defending Europe, without the U.S. stepping in. Which depending how things go after the summer, it might not.Award-winning European correspondent, Caroline de Gruyter, and New School prof, Claire Potter lend their expert hands to help us cover all these issues.Listen in and stay tuned as we further develop this venture with our partner, EUobserver. We welcome your feedback, so be in touch! You can subscribe hereand get us where your ears go for podcasts:* Apple Podcasts* Spotify* EUObserverAmong other things, Martin Gak writes Inconclusive Thoughts; and William Glucroft writes The ‘Schland. We’d love to see you over there, too!As a tiny operation, we do our best to spellcheck, factcheck, and contextualize all the information presented in the podcast. But pobody’s nerfect. If you hear something that doesn’t sound right — write! We welcome your feedback. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit euroscopic.substack.com

Yes, the “center” of European politics “held.” But oh dear are things fragile. Neither the German nor French political establishment enjoys much legitimacy these days, and only the far-right seem to have come up with an “alternative” to them. Hey, say what you want, but at least it’s an ethos. While there are still plenty of socialists and center-left folks loafing about the halls of European power, it’s anyone’s guess what the EU looks like when its two biggest members are flirting with neo-fascist takeovers or ungovernable coalitions — if not nationally, at least regionally.In next-largest Italy, the populist right already has things well in hand. EUO’s Valentina Saini returns to Euroscopic to discuss what’s up in Italy and the government’s push towards the fancy-sounding idea of “differentiated autonomy.” Giorgia Meloni may find herself in the awkward position of trying to boost her European credentials while placating the euroskeptic ones that got her into power in the first place. Oops.But who needs illiberals to dismantle “European values” from within when liberals are happy to do it themselves? EUO columnist Shada Islam joins us to discuss the role that Israel’s destruction of Gaza is playing in splitting the EU — and if Arab and Muslim voters here can form the kind of potent constituency that their counterparts in the United States have been able to do.Listen in and stay tuned as we further develop this venture with our partner, EUobserver. We welcome your feedback, so be in touch! You can subscribe hereand get us where your ears go for podcasts:* Apple Podcasts* Spotify* EUObserverAmong other things, Martin Gak writes Inconclusive Thoughts; and William Glucroft writes The ‘Schland. We’d love to see you over there, too!As a tiny operation, we do our best to spellcheck, factcheck, and contextualize all the information presented in the podcast. But pobody’s nerfect. If you hear something that doesn’t sound right — write! We welcome your feedback. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit euroscopic.substack.com

Let the somber postmortems and insider jockeying begin! The result of the 2024 European elections this week was, broadly speaking, what we all figured it would be. The populist right and illiberal voices did alright, but the lefty-ish folks held their own. The Macrons and Scholzs of the bloc more or less collapsed, while the Green wave of 2019 is all but washed up. And … they kinda deserve it?What did seem pretty clear is that voters — the roughly 50% of them who voted, at least — are unhappy with politics as usual. Discussing what happened and what now, Euroscopic brings a fine group of EUobserver reporters to the podcast table: Viktória Serdült in Hungary, Valentina Saini in Italy, and Piet Ruig in Brussels returns from last week to look to France.So pull up a chair of your own, dig into some cacio e pepe, and listen along to a special episode recorded together from the heart of any home, and the source of all politics: the home kitchen.Listen in and stay tuned as we further develop this venture with our partner, EUobserver. We welcome your feedback, so be in touch! You can subscribe hereand get us where your ears go for podcasts:* Apple Podcasts* Spotify* EUObserverAmong other things, Martin Gak writes Inconclusive Thoughts; and William Glucroft writes The ‘Schland. We’d love to see you over there, too!As a tiny operation, we do our best to spellcheck, factcheck, and contextualize all the information presented in the podcast. But pobody’s nerfect. If you hear something that doesn’t sound right — write! We welcome your feedback. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit euroscopic.substack.com

The nice thing about voting, other than that whole democracy thing, is it puts an end to months of filling airtime with unverifiable speculation. (Not that your humble Euroscopic hosts would ever stoop so low …). So Martin and I are, like millions of others across the European Union, eager to see polls open and await the results of European Elections.But first! One last chance to fill airtime with unverifiable speculation. We run through the big stuff at stake in this election and the ways it could pan out. The head of Transparency International EU, Nick Aiossa, joins us to talk about how EU institutions and officials have gotten better at coming clean about conflicts of interest — and how much better they still need to get. Then EUobserver contributing reporter Piet Ruig tells us about his day out in a Brussels park with populist farmer protesters.Listen, subscribe for free, and don’t go anywhere as the results come in. Most of all, if you’re a European citizen, go vote.Listen in and stay tuned as we further develop this venture with our partner, EUobserver. We welcome your feedback, so be in touch! You can subscribe hereand get us where your ears go for podcasts:* Apple Podcasts* Spotify* EUObserverAmong other things, Martin Gak writes Inconclusive Thoughts; and William Glucroft writes The ‘Schland. We’d love to see you over there, too!As a tiny operation, we do our best to spellcheck, factcheck, and contextualize all the information presented in the podcast. But pobody’s nerfect. If you hear something that doesn’t sound right — write! We welcome your feedback. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit euroscopic.substack.com

It’s not long now until citizens of the European Union vote for their next European Parliament and, in turn, the Commission. So it’s a good time for Martin and William to figure out just where they stand on the issues. Voting can be confusing, which is why you can get some help with this handy test. Although we’ll be honest: It leaves a lot to be desired.Don’t miss an interview with podcast returnee Simon Van Dorpe, an investigative journalist at Follow The Money. He reveals more insights into high-level power plays that can shape, make, and maybe break the EU and its democratic backbone.And speaking of all those lofty values, EU member states are hardly on the same page when it comes to what to do with Israel and the country’s ongoing onslaught of Gaza. IHL professor Michael Becker joins us from Dublin to share his years of expertise, as more EU countries recognize Palestinian statehood while others strike awkward balances between their political support for Israel and their obligations to international law.Listen in and stay tuned as we further develop this venture with our partner, EUobserver. We welcome your feedback, so be in touch! You can subscribe hereand get us where your ears go for podcasts:* Apple Podcasts* Spotify* EUObserverAmong other things, Martin Gak writes Inconclusive Thoughts; and William Glucroft writes The ‘Schland. We’d love to see you over there, too!As a tiny operation, we do our best to spellcheck, factcheck, and contextualize all the information presented in the podcast. But pobody’s nerfect. If you hear something that doesn’t sound right — write! We welcome your feedback. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit euroscopic.substack.com