As we move into 2019, two big elections could shake up the rest of the year. In May, the European elections could see an unprecedented eurosceptic populist surge. Across the continent, politicians like Marine Le Pen and parties like Germany’s AfD are receiving more support. Fredrik Erixon also writes in this week’s cover that, notably, the populists are maturing to play the political game. So is the EU about to be fundamentally changed by the political outsiders? Fredrik talks to us on the podcast, joined by Charles Grant, the Director of the Centre for European Reform, who says that, in response, the pan-European moderates will become more cohesive:
‘The moderate parties in the European parliament – the centre right and the centre left… – will work together to make sure that the EU can do its business. Legislation will pass because these moderate forces will work together as a centrist bloc.’
Back home, the spectre of a general election looms large. Katy
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