Hi everyone, welcome to the Euro Intelligence Podcasts covering current affairs in the EU and Eurozone.

I'm here with Wolfgang and Suzanne, directors of Euro Intelligence in Oxford.

I am calling in from Paris.

So guys, this week, the first thing we wanted to talk about was the second wave that is rolling across Europe right now.

After an initial bump, a lot of political leaders are

kind of sagging in approval ratings now, particularly Emmanuel Macron here in France. We're kind of

looking at the political aspects of the second wave right now. And Suzanne, you've been covering a lot of

that this week with a focus on extremism and how the far right is kind of taking advantage of this increasingly hostile

sentiments towards government restrictions. What would you say like what's sticking out to you right

now as we enter the second wave? Yeah, I mean, the second wave is definitely different.

The first wave, the first wave we didn't know what was hitting us. We had no clue what the next

week or month would look like, how long the lockdown will be. And also, it was a time where

everyone was in the same situation. It was really a show of solidarity. And this is all gone now

with the second wave. So this is not only a question of the weather. It is also the uncertainty about the lockdown. There's even more uncertainty now in a sense that some of the lockdowns are local. We don't know whether the rules apply to this street or this region and or the other can we travel or not.

All these kind of uncertainties add up.

Also, in terms of economics, do the schemes color or employment or also the mortgages that have been frozen?

This time, all these schemes come to an end and the time where the uncertainty about

the second lockdown of the second wave are at their height. So there's much at stake for the people.

And of course, it also gave rise to all sorts of conspiracy theories. We saw some far-right

protests mixing with normal protesters who do think that the

coronavirus is actually a sort of a hoax that the measures that the government is implementing

is more about limiting their basic freedom of movement and therefore should be opposed.

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