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 [https://euobserver.com/rule-of-law/arfbe5a2f1] and Valentina Saini [https://euobserver.com/news/ar43c2b3e9]. Listen in and stay tuned as we further develop this venture with our partner, EUobserver [https://euobserver.com/euroscopic]. We welcome your feedback, so be in touch! You can subscribe here [http://euroscopic.substack.com]and get us where your ears go for podcasts: * Apple Podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/euroscopic-podcast/id1698681124] * Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/5sy9ruIFmgUA1QZnEVhI5s?si=ecd4b9e3b2ca4b04] * EUObserver [https://euobserver.com/euroscopic] Among other things, Martin Gak writes Inconclusive Thoughts [https://1gakaday.substack.com]; and William Glucroft writes The ‘Schland [https://schland.substack.com]. 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 [https://euroscopic.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

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 [https://www.frenchdispatch.eu/about]. 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 [https://euobserver.com/euroscopic]. We welcome your feedback, so be in touch! You can subscribe here [http://euroscopic.substack.com]and get us where your ears go for podcasts: * Apple Podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/euroscopic-podcast/id1698681124] * Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/5sy9ruIFmgUA1QZnEVhI5s?si=ecd4b9e3b2ca4b04] * EUObserver [https://euobserver.com/euroscopic] Among other things, Martin Gak writes Inconclusive Thoughts [https://1gakaday.substack.com]; and William Glucroft writes The ‘Schland [https://schland.substack.com]. 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 [https://euroscopic.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

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 [https://euobserver.com/bio/eu83cf6ae2] as well as European insider and fellow substacker, Augustin Bourleaud [https://substack.com/@whatsupeuenglish]. Listen in and stay tuned as we further develop this venture with our partner, EUobserver [https://euobserver.com/euroscopic]. We welcome your feedback, so be in touch! You can subscribe here [http://euroscopic.substack.com]and get us where your ears go for podcasts: * Apple Podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/euroscopic-podcast/id1698681124] * Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/5sy9ruIFmgUA1QZnEVhI5s?si=ecd4b9e3b2ca4b04] * EUObserver [https://euobserver.com/euroscopic] Among other things, Martin Gak writes Inconclusive Thoughts [https://1gakaday.substack.com]; and William Glucroft writes The ‘Schland [https://schland.substack.com]. 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 [https://euroscopic.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

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 [https://youtu.be/haunEK4HLI8?feature=shared&t=401] 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 [https://euobserver.com/bio/euf00aa265] and Pascal LeTendre-Hanns [https://forefrontadvisers.com/our-experts/]. 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 [https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/haaretz-today/2024-07-08/ty-article/.premium/the-curious-case-of-israels-rogue-envoy-to-europes-antisemitic-far-right/00000190-92f5-dcf1-afdd-d2f5f2d40000] 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 [https://euobserver.com/euroscopic]. We welcome your feedback, so be in touch! You can subscribe here [http://euroscopic.substack.com]and get us where your ears go for podcasts: * Apple Podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/euroscopic-podcast/id1698681124] * Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/5sy9ruIFmgUA1QZnEVhI5s?si=ecd4b9e3b2ca4b04] * EUObserver [https://euobserver.com/euroscopic] Among other things, Martin Gak writes Inconclusive Thoughts [https://1gakaday.substack.com]; and William Glucroft writes The ‘Schland [https://schland.substack.com]. 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 [https://euroscopic.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

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 [https://euobserver.com/eu-political/arf3e8e4fe] returns to talk foremost about Hungary’s presidency and Pascal LeTendre-Hanns [https://forefrontadvisers.com/our-experts/] shares insights into French politics right now [https://pascallth.substack.com/p/macrons-risky-scorched-earth-strategy]. 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 [https://euobserver.com/euroscopic]. We welcome your feedback, so be in touch! You can subscribe here [http://euroscopic.substack.com]and get us where your ears go for podcasts: * Apple Podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/euroscopic-podcast/id1698681124] * Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/5sy9ruIFmgUA1QZnEVhI5s?si=ecd4b9e3b2ca4b04] * EUObserver [https://euobserver.com/euroscopic] Among other things, Martin Gak writes Inconclusive Thoughts [https://1gakaday.substack.com]; and William Glucroft writes The ‘Schland [https://schland.substack.com]. 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 [https://euroscopic.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]