From 'Fortress Austria' to 'Fortress Europe'?

EU Confidential

POLITICO

Politics, News Commentary, News

4.4 • 175 Ratings

🗓️ 4 October 2024

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this week’s episode of EU Confidential, we tackle the complex forces shaping Europe’s future — where political shifts, migration and escalating conflict in neighboring regions are all colliding. As tensions in the Middle East intensify, POLITICO's Opinion Editor Jamie Dettmer reports from Tel Aviv, breaking down the situation on the ground and the prospect of an all-out war in the region. We then shift focus to Austria, where the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) secured a significant election victory on a “Fortress Austria” platform. Host Sarah Wheaton and Theresa Kuhn, professor of modern European history and politics at the University of Amsterdam, discuss what drove voters to the FPÖ and how Austria joins a growing bloc of European Union countries where far-right parties are reshaping the political landscape. What could this mean for Europe’s broader approach to migration? The episode also continues our "Berlaymont Who’s Who" miniseries, with Kathryn Carlson, our financial regulation reporter, introducing Magnus Brunner, Austria's former finance minister, who could soon become the EU’s next commissioner for migration. Plus, our NATO correspondent Stuart Lau sits down for an exclusive interview with former NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. Further reading: Israel sends troops into Lebanon — but its real target is Iran, by Jamie Dettmer Israel risks a long fight in Lebanon, by Jamie Dettmer Israel vows ‘consequences’ for Iran after missile barrage, by Jamie Dettmer NATO’s Stoltenberg has parting words for Europe: Don’t fear Trump, work with him, by Stuart Lau Sorry, Mark Rutte, there’ll be no honeymoon at NATO, by Stuart Lau Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Get ready for a game changer.
0:02.2	Adobe Express is the quick and easy app that makes creating content for your business easier than ever.
0:07.6	From engaging presentations to eye-catching animations and social posts,
0:11.6	your teams can produce work that's on brand and on time every time.
0:15.8	Transform your ideas into stand-out content with time-saving generative AI features
0:20.6	that are designed to be safe
0:21.8	for commercial use. No headaches, just results. Curious to learn more, head to Adobe.com
0:27.8	forward slash express. So this week's episode of EU Confidential was really hard to do. At the
0:35.2	beginning of the week, we thought we had a game plan.
0:44.3	To Austria now, where for the first time since the Second World War, a far-right party has come top in the country's general election. Led by Herbert Kikil, the party has pledged to prevent migrants from entering Austria.
0:54.3	We're going to talk about the Austrian election results, which, given the far-right victory
0:59.1	and their campaign on this anti-migration fortress Austria platform, seems like a perfect
1:04.8	way to talk about this growing issue of border control, not just in Austria, but all
1:10.1	around the EU.
1:12.1	But then the conflicts in the Middle East started to flare up again.
1:16.0	And not like that simmer we so often see, but like a full boil.
1:21.1	The UN has warned that the Middle East is on the brink of imminent catastrophe amid fears of an all-out war.
1:27.6	And in my reporting for my day job here at Politico, co-writing our daily playbook newsletter,
1:33.2	I was hearing diplomats say, you know, yeah, we thought migration was going to be the big topic
1:36.9	that we're all talking about.
1:38.3	There was this fight to get it on the agenda for when the EU's leaders next meet.
1:42.5	But now suddenly the Middle East is, you know,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from POLITICO, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of POLITICO and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.