An EU storm over a seating snafu and a resurgence of coronavirus instances in Jap and Central Europe take heart stage on this episode — together with Bulgarian political scientist Ivan Krastev.
The large preoccupation for the Brussels bubble this week was a visit to Ankara by European Council President Charles Michel and Fee President Ursula von der Leyen. Michel took a chair subsequent to Turkish Recep Tayyip Erdoğan whereas von der Leyen needed to make do with a close-by couch. POLITICO’s Andrew Grey and Lili Bayer break down why “Sofagate” grew to become an emblem for hot-button points, together with girls’s rights in addition to tensions between EU establishments and their leaders.
Andrew and Lili, a former Budapest correspondent, are joined by Jan Cienski in Warsaw and Siegfried Mortkowitz in Prague to debate why Central and Jap Europe is struggling so badly with the coronavirus proper now, regardless of having managed properly within the first wave final 12 months.
Our particular visitor is Ivan Krastev. The Bulgarian political scientist is a widely known thinker on European politics and spoke to Andrew from Sofia, the place he’s chair of the Centre for Liberal Methods, concerning the coronavirus’ impression on the EU, Europe’s relationship with China and the rise of illiberalism — the topic of Krastev’s most up-to-date e book, The Mild that Failed, co-authored with Stephen Holmes.
Lastly, we hope you’ll take a while to hearken to our particular version of EU Confidential, reflecting on the life and profession of Stephen Brown, the POLITICO Europe editor in chief who died of a coronary heart assault final month on the age of 57.