MEGA shift in the EU's balance of power

EU Confidential

POLITICO

Politics, News Commentary, News

4.4 • 175 Ratings

🗓️ 21 June 2024

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Almost two weeks after the EU election, there is still a lot of political manoeuvring going on — both in Brussels and in national capitals. First, POLITICO's chief EU correspondent, Barbara Moens, recaps of the race for the top jobs after European leaders failed to reach a deal at their informal dinner in Brussels earlier this week. Then, we zoom in on the countries and leaders who until recently were calling the shots, but now seem weakened — and those who are trying to seize the new zeitgeist and claim more power than they've had in the past. Host Sarah Wheaton and POLITICO's chief Europe correspondent in Berlin, Matthew Karnitschnig, discuss the precarious situation in which German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the parties in his governing coalition find themselves as a result of the EU vote. Later, we move to Poland and take a look at Donald Tusk and his increasingly dominant position among European leaders. Sarah is joined by Andrzej Bobiński, journalist and managing director of Polityka Insight in Warsaw, and Jan Cienski, POLITICO's senior political editor. And finally, Hungary's newly-unveiled slogan for its upcoming presidency of the Council of the EU may be "Make Europe Great Again," but we here at EU Confidential are all about MAGA: Making Audio Great Again. So do keep sending your ideas and comments to podcast@politico.eu. Further reading: EU leaders fail to agree on von der Leyen’s second term , by Barbara Moens, Jacopo Barigazzi and Stuart Lau Time runs out for Olaf Scholz, by Matthew Karnitschnig 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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0:00.0	We are having a WTF moment in Brussels.
0:05.7	The EU's traditional power players tried so hard at the beginning of this week to keep the usual order of things on track.
0:14.5	They looked like they were going to reach a consensus on a predictable list of names for the EU's top jobs.
0:20.3	But nope, that deal fell through, and it's only going to get more complicated.
0:26.6	Georgia Maloney's hard-right political group could well overtake Macron's centrist
0:33.6	to be the third biggest force in the European Parliament.
0:36.6	And with political chaos in France and
0:39.1	Germany, it's the leaders of Poland, Italy, and Greece that are looking like the bloc's stable hands.
0:45.8	And how could we forget Hungary? Budapest is about to take on the rotating presidency of the Council of
0:52.5	the EU. And that means that Victor Orban is in the driver's seat, at least for the Council of the EU, and that means that Victor
0:54.4	Orban is in the driver's seat, at least for the rest of the year, on key initiatives like
0:59.2	sanctions and enlargement. They just unveiled their slogan, and the vibe is not at all subtle.
1:06.2	Make Europe great again. So are we witnessing a mega shift in the balance of power? And if yes, what will it mean?
1:17.2	I'm Sarah Wheaton, host of EU Confidential. In this episode, we're going to zoom in on Germany,
1:24.0	where the election setback for the governing coalition was catastrophic.
1:28.5	Our guest will be my colleague Matt Karnichnig in Berlin.
1:32.3	Later, I'll be joined by Andrei Bobinski, the managing director of Politica Insight in
1:36.5	Warsaw, as well as Politico's senior policy editor Jan Kinski.
1:40.4	We'll be discussing Donald Tusks and Poland's growing influence in the EU's power games.
1:45.7	But first, we're going to have a quick recap of the race for the top jobs in Brussels.
1:49.9	Let's welcome Barbara Moon's Politico's chief EU correspondent.
1:54.1	Barbara, so the last time we had you on was election night, the 9th of June.
	...

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