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Brussels Playbook Podcast

Ep 166: Macron's Lebanon gamble — Navalny poisoning — Misha Glenny's Iron Men

Brussels Playbook Podcast

POLITICO

News, Politics, News Commentary

4.4204 Ratings

🗓️ 3 September 2020

⏱️ 37 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A firsthand account of French President Emmanuel Macron's latest diplomatic push in Lebanon; the poisoning of opposition activist Alexei Navalny; and McMafia author Misha Glenny on the political leaders he calls "iron men" — it's a packed episode of EU Confidential to welcome you back from summer holidays. POLITICO's Rym Momtaz sat down with Macron on his plane as they headed to Beirut earlier this week. Rym gives us the inside scoop on the trip and breaks down Macron's risky mission to resolve Lebanon's multiple interlocking crises. POLITICO's Matthew Karnitschnig and Andrew Gray discuss how Germany and Europe will respond now that Berlin has concluded Navalny was poisoned with a nerve agent from the Novichok group. Misha Glenny, author of the nonfiction book McMafia that inspired a big-budget TV thriller series, is our special guest to discuss his latest project: A six-part Audible series, The Rise of the Iron Men. Glenny's definition of the iron men — they're all men, he notes — are populists who came to power thanks to democracy and then set about undermining it. He starts the series with Hungary's Viktor Orbán, before going on to profile Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines, Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, India's Narendra Modi and ... the U.K.'s Boris Johnson. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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We have to look at our own failure if we're going to combat the obvious appeal of populists.

1:22.9

In most cases, the populists have addressed underlying economic problems which other people have ignored.

1:32.3

Welcome to EU Confidential, the number one European politics podcast.

1:36.5

I'm Andrew Gray Politico's EU editor in Brussels, somewhat refreshed after a short holiday.

1:42.9

And you just heard the voice of Misha Glennie,, the British author best known these days for McMafia,

1:48.4

a book that inspired a big-budget TV thriller.

1:51.5

You'll hear him in conversation later in the podcast,

...

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