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Welcome to The Spectator podcast. I'm Isabel Harbman, the Spectator's assistant editor.

This week we'll be discussing whether Turkey's President Erdogan is the most powerful man in Europe,

what's next for Boris, and Lester's fairy tale title win.

First up, has Erdogan brought Europe to heal?

In his spectator cover piece, Douglas Murray argues that the Turkish president has used a mixture of intimidation, threats and blackmail to do just that

and throw open the doors of Europe to Turkey.

Douglas says Erdogan is a wretched Islamist bully

who has shown just how the EU works. But in pushing Europe around, is Erdogan now more powerful

than Merkel, Juncker and Cameron? I'm joined to discuss this by Rem Korteweg from the Centre for

European Reform. So Douglas Murray argues in his cover piece that Erdogan is now the

most powerful man in Europe. Do you agree with that? Well, I think there's certainly a fair amount of

truth to that. I wouldn't necessarily put him on the number one spot. Who would you put his number one?

Well, Angola Merkel, I would say, still really takes the throne. But when it comes to key actors in the European political

landscape, Erdogan is definitely, definitely there. And that, of course, has everything to do with

the migration crisis and the crucial role that Turkey plays in enabling the EU to come to

grips with the migration crisis. If you want to put it in those terms, Turkey can

provide both the lock to, or putting a stop to the migration flows, but it can also be a spoiler.

I mean, it can also decide to allow migrants to cross the Aegean or cross the land border with Bulgaria

and putting pressure on the Europeans

to get their act together.

Douglas talks in his piece of bad behaviour, but basically these are threats from Turkey

...