Welcome to the Eurointelligence podcast. I'm Wolfgang Munchau and with me I'm Zanne Munchank and Jack Smith.

Today we'll talk about the far right. Again, after the loss of Victor Orban, a negative omen for the far right, or maybe Georgia Maloney's defiance of Donald Trump, her break with Israel, maybe a positive sign for the far right.

We see different signals, and we would like to discuss what it takes for the far right to both succeed and to fail.

Jack, let's start with Maloney.

This is interesting.

She's broken off with Israel. I know in Israel people

are genuinely stunned by her U-turn. She was the leader most likely to be on Israel's side and is

now turned against them. Obviously, the way she responded to Trump was unexpected, given

her previous record.

So something is up.

Can you explain what's happening?

Yeah, I mean, I think what's happening is that although it's manifesting differently this time around,

it's an extension, I think, of the way that Maloney has governed since she took office,

and even an extension of, I think, the political

evolution that she underwent in the couple of years prior to the 2022 election, which is that

Maloney might have some sort of core principles, but she's also prepared to be pragmatic,

once in power, and she's prepared to sort of shift with the prevailing political direction.

And that's what's happened in both of these instances, right? So firstly, of course, with,

with Trump and with repudiating Trump, it was because Trump had basically insulted the Pope.

And insulting the Pope, I think you don't have to be an expert with a PhD on Italian political history

to realize that this probably isn't going to win you very many friends in one of the most

Catholic countries, not only in Europe, but in the world. When Trump did that, she pretty much

...