his life story may have ground to a halt. 27 years ago but there's no holding back his dreams. thank you for what. cinema starts may 27th on to double. the hollow in a very warm welcome indeed to quadriga coming to you from the heart of europe and our focus is on this weekend's elections to the european parliament where it has been widely assumed that the populist far right parties might grab as many as a quarter of all the seats in the parliament but then scandal in austria and the collapse of the country's coalition government between conservatives and the populist right this after secretly film video footage emerged apparently showing

the leader right freedom party promising state contracts to a woman posing as the niece of a russian oligarch so on the eve of a watershed election for europe our question here on quadriga this week is video scandal election blows to europe's far right and to discuss that question i'm joined here in the studio by matthew carnage snake chief europe correspondent for politico and he says the austrian video makes it harder for the far right to deny who they really are but also with us is george wallace only in many ways shows the french foreign correspondent believes that it's make or break for the union and it's the demise of australia's far right sunday's election outcome will seal the fate of your she seems. very warm welcome to the current sailor a political activist and consultant to 3. would you have any social democrats who

argues that we should not be shocked when racist empty constitutional and criminal right wing populist dubin say things that are racist and anti constitutional and. just thank you all 3 things that i think with her statements to the top of the show ramona well i'd like to begin with you and as you will be well aware here in germany the term that everybody's using to do is to talk about the importance of this election this weekend there's a shiksa it's a sort of a very heavy german term destiny and fate or you have said yourself it will seal the fate of you or what you mean well it definitely feels like it because if the populists do when a majority of seats in the european parliament we do know that they don't intend to keep europe as it is they want to make it implode basically so we basically what's at stake on sunday east the fate of europe and your presidents will have a misnomer cohen said never before has europe been in such danger tell me

a little bit more about his fears that well you know last week steve benen the former champ advice was in france to support my in the pen so we see all the populist parties across europe unite and what we see there is that there's a unity of those parties in the in the the will of wanting the does dismantle the dismantling of europe the thing is that they managed to show unity why any other party every other party shows division and that is a very dangerous method that has been a tendency in the past to sort of look or european elections as sort of a little bit boring the people of europe don't know who their politicians are though really don't vote vote very much as your imagination being fired up this time around have you viewing because it is improved a little bit entertaining perhaps the whole process. i mean different it has been

a bit different and it's certainly been entertaining in the strength of the far right is obviously you know something that i think has made a lot of people pay more attention to this campaign than they normally would i'm not convinced that it's going to bring the masses of voters to the ballot box that some people are hoping for and that will be a very important factor in how well the far right does i don't think that there's a danger that they'll win all the polls suggest that they'll be you know solid backing again for the for the main string parties but the far right will do well and it will allow them presumably in the years to come to gum up the system a bit and in brussels and in the e.u. . before we talk let's just rewind a little bit and talk about this video that has emerged in austria tell us what tina since the story is. well the story is basically that the video with it was

taken surreptitiously over a 7 hour period and you had a couple of people posing as you know these shady russian figures trying to buy influence into austria in various ways and there we see that the head of the freedom party has christian straka offering to do deals with them and sort of brings a sort of mission that's one of these truly astonishing it's breathtaking and i think that's why he had to resign within 12 hours of the video being released sebastian cordes the chancellor of austria called new elections within 24 hours so if there's anything good about what happened in austria over the weekend i think we can say that it showed that in a western european. democratic country that the institutions are still working despite the influence of the far right there it's important to remember that the freedom party was a member of the government and had more than a quarter of the of the vote in the last which is different from most of the populist right wing part of this. in government and they are have just been much

more successful over the years in austria than they have in other countries is the 2nd time in recent years that they were a member of the governing coalition. or one of the one of the topics of our discussion today is inevitably going to be values and i have a quote from the woman who is germany's justice minister who is the lead candidate for the social democrats in this european election. day and what she says is will europe remain liberal cosmopolitan and based on cooperation or will it become more thorough teria nationalistic and full of hate do you share her assessment absolutely and we see that. we have this division and this is ation off people who want more integration of people who want more unity of the european and context and on the other side people who would try to stress on. they are on

their national contexts as people and parties must say who would rather pull out of europe than continuing this yeah one must say success story of europe and within this frame it's not enough to only dismantle europe but to really put pressure and to endanger minorities to to to spread fear and to spread hate be it on social media or even on the streets so this question off have been having this to coalition is not only. important when we were got europe but it also regards every city sing sing us citizens within their prospective home countries the when we talk about values life cosmopolitan values for example it's very difficult at this point in time because there are so many ordinary voters who are increasingly proud of saying that they are not liberal indeed liberal is for them a dirty word they're proud to say we are

a liberal the question is of what to do well as they lead to candidate of the social democratic party it's absolutely obvious why she stressed on the on these values rather than on the conservative values are if you would rather look a diverse area and maybe even the right wing values if you could call them as such so it's funny it's not surprising that she she talked about these values because what we've seen in the past is that people who would consider themselves liberal and who would consider themselves being part of in or been movement they were too quiet in the past they have voices and also they have votes where not enough in order to hold back at this right wing movement so we need these people now to see dede that important they have in order to sustain. the europe

as we have it run on your model yeah i was nodding about about this just makes me think of the situation in france where we have to divest movements which was quite representative of people having a feeling they were and heritage and that is a major impediment for india coming elections for emanuel because he's the pro european candidate which has the more chances whose party has the more chances to gather the most votes but he's not like to buy a lot of french people and who is the party who shows an understanding to the problems of the citizens according to their propaganda it is a high standard on us and that of my in the band which has and that's not in the nationalistic agenda which is completely a paradox there run for office in the european union which is a transnational which transcends. those nationalism yet they want to be elected the european parliament in order to develop their nationalist agenda

ok before we move on let's just listen to him extract a short extract from the video we've been referring to where the from right freedom party leader talks about helping the russian oligarch to take over the crewman that sides on that is one of australia's most widely circulated newspapers. as soon as she takes over the crown of paper as soon as that happens we have to talk openly we have to sit down together this this and this is what we have at the krona. $34.00 people we have to push them $34.00 people have to be dumped. and we'll bring in 5 new ones right away which will build up that's the deal. the woman compensates and suggests that this video quote leaves the european far right in

disarray and plays into the hands of centrist and leftist forces ahead of this weekend's election what do you say. you know if i were i would go that far i think it might be wishful thinking on the part of that commentator i certainly think that it does show who these people really are what the far right really means in terms of the democratic values of the country there certainly will be a huge effect in austria reentering to see what the effect of this is in germany because the freedom party has had very close ties to the alternative for germany party here in germany there's been a lot of consultation going back and forth and there are plenty of pictures out there showing the leaders of the if de together with the leaders of the freedom party which the other parties in germany over the past week have been very happy to send around so i think that there might be an effect there what the fact is beyond there it gets a little bit more difficult to predict because people like the tales of any in italy or marine le pen in france will say well that's austria that has nothing to

do with us and you know what we'll see we'll see what effect it has but there is no doubt i think that what this video shows is what's at stake for. europe with this rise in populism in addition to a stake in terms of the freedom of the press quite explicitly in that sequence that we just listened to well absolutely and i think this is one of the main reasons that struck the vice chancellor in austria there. had to resign right away because people saw that this is just you know completely beyond the pale and you know that in the end the other aspect of this is that the paper we were talking about is not just one of the most popular newspapers in australia it's one of the most read newspapers in the world on a per capita basis that reaches almost half of the austrian population every day and not just that but it already is a right wing paper in our view supported the freedom party of people wanting why

would he want to take even more influence over this and it just shows that we know the way these far right minds are working he referred to viktor orbán in hungary and said you know what we want to have a media landscape like that in hungary and in hungary orbán has basically taken control through his cronies of the entire media establishment and i think that has to be quite shocking not just to people in austria but and the rest of europe as well i mean well i know this is a crude aspect of the story very close to your home in germany it's very important as people are presently these days are celebrating the post 2nd world war constitution of germany so rightly proud of freedom of the press is one of the sort of the cornerstones of that constitution and i know there's a sort of a friendship spec to this story that you can tell us about exactly well when viktor orban was elected in hungary i was quite shocked by. seeing what was happening to the press in hungary and yet if you look at the friends at the moment yesterday one of the leads and that is from newspaper le monde i was kind of vote by the homeland

security office to answer for homework for a moment and she is the 5th french journalist 5th french and that is having been asked to to give an account about where she's been reporting on the scandal so. there's a wave of kind of intimidation from the government was janet is in a country where no one would think that the press. was inventor and that is quite worrying and karen i'd like to come back to your quote that intrigued me very much of the stance of the show when you said we should not be shocked when racist uns used to constitutional criminal right wing populist do and say things exactly of that nature make the case for the 50 or so the challenge that you are making of racist anti constitutional and criminal well we've seen with the slogan off of the freedom party in austria austrian money for austrian people.

which you could link to the mafia for example which i would see as the constitutional we've seen and that's not the only case we've seen that in germany with the alternative to german for germany the party which is also part of the us talk right now the leading opposition party tends to be said absolutely absolutely well we also have scandals linked to watts donations illegal donations for the party we've seen it in france where european money was. derived into departed directly so all these cases i would say it's the nature of these right wing populist parties all these cases out there and still people. are reluctant to see the reality behind this behind us parties and even more all

the discussions they lead if i look at the german bundestag for example the threatening discussions for minorities in germany it doesn't only stay in the bundestag but it leads to consequent actions on the streets if. germany amended and uses the word. girl. never really deliver to the. the way this leads to actions on the streets women with heat up get in. they'd be spat out on the on the street people tear that they had that they had a pregnant woman has been punched in the stomach so if we see that the that the sentiment of the parties is something which we already see on the streets and which is a dangerous thing for people of minorities ok let's find out

a little bit about what the far right europe for europe is far right euro skeptic leaders have to say one figure stands out of course that's italy's. video he's head of the party simply known as the league and he invited some of his populist allies to milan the northern italian city of the weekend in a show of strength. he loves a good show to the dulcet tunes of puccini my tale beenie head of the legal north invokes his vision of a new right wing european alliance. and he loves drama the european election he says is a matter of life and death. because we are experiencing a historical moment. so important step we need to do everything we can to free this country to free this confidence from the illegal occupation of brussels has been orchestrating for many years. she too wants to see

a european revolution an awakening of the people who are in the path france's right wing figurehead. good such we don't want to see european union any larger issue that has brought the ill winds of globalization upon europe. they want to form a european alliance of people and nations ideally with poland hungary and the u.k. but within the european parliament the nationalist leaders are anything but unified how strong is europe's right wing. county which is making the case against the far right. of some video would make it to a battle as he sees it between the elites the european brussels elites of the one hand and the ordinary working people of europe on the other he would say that many of those ordinary working people are being left behind that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer you have any sympathy for that case because that's where

a lot of the i guess the fear the aggression the hate is coming from absolutely as a social democrat i absolutely can can relate to the s.n.c. off the poor are getting poorer and the rich are getting rich which is reality we see in germany and europe such but the problem off the right thing populist is the . they find to that question the answer they find to that question is we need to exclude people of minorities we need to exclude people of color and we see that. people who i would call the victim in this case actually the penetrate that's actually the people we need to fight against and that's the problem here what we need is to find solutions i believe in a very strong european integration i believe fall in work for example and also a minimum wage if we talk about these issues let's talk about these answers and not

to pinpoint hate and exclusion of people who are already in marginalized positions matthew germany's broadsheets site says in the past they wanted to destroy the you know the nationalists want to take over what do you make of that i don't think that's really true actually i think that they still want to destroy the e.u. but they want to take over 1st in order to destroy the e.u. because in the past they've been quite open about wanting to destroy the u.s. we heard in the clip of marine le pen there saying that the e.u. was kind of the root of all evil and that it needed to be basically destroyed from within instead of being so explicit about it now they're saying that they want to reform the e.u. but they leave open what that exactly means on the other hand i'd be careful to assume that these parties are going to be able to coordinate with one another very closely because they are quite different in nature they're also very unstable as we've seen with the austrian example they're very volatile because of the internal

dynamics in the parties and on a lot of key issues they do not agree with one another for example marine le pen and salvini are very sort of fond of russia and vladimir putin and have really tried to curry favor with him over the years whereas in a country like poland they're very anti russia poland also has a. right government in place and poland for example is also very pro e.u. people don't want to leave the european union and i think that's also true in some of these other countries even though the parties are very euro skeptic as it were there's still large majorities in most of these countries that support european union membership so i think it's going to be an interesting debate in the coming years but i don't think that europe is going to fall apart as as a result of it but it does it does make things less stable than they have to be one name we haven't so far mentioned in the basin is the erstwhile sort of most powerful woman in the world is the most powerful woman in europe angle americal she

has been speaking out only europe and its future in the run up to this weekend's votes and here's one thing that stood out let's listen. our values mean that we can be proud of our country and still build up europe at the same time patriotism and the european union are not mutually exclusive the hope is nationalism is the enemy of the european project and in the final days before the election we need to make that clear my friend says the man in that snogging put out by come up to me before i. remember saying in essence that europeans can be can be nationalists could be perpetual to make about their own country but they can also be internationalists and they can be patriotic about your of what they got to be patriotic about well what you just heard to chime in tesco say is that europe was built on come on values and those 5 years are teller runs and being open minded and cooperating with

one another and the past i would be taken if nationalist parties would gain more seats in the european parliament would be that of isolationism not only from country to country but also from europe towards the world and that is something that represents a great then for the common values that are does appear out. that's also very good but the vast majority of course according to the figures the vast majority of european voters european citizens believe the system is broken the muse going to disappear within the next who knew this this is a must crisis for for us there are i think and also rightly so a lot of people are disappointed by europe to see by europe you see in friends for example farmers there's one farmer every 3 days which commits suicide because they can no longer have a viable. viola viola bill sorry. work project and that is because of

a lot of european directives which was which were imposed on where. that don't have those european goals in mind in their everyday lives so people are rightly so disappointed but it's only with changes coming from within that we can reform europe is not by completely destroying it. people are saying that europe will crumble within 10 years they right feels that it's our future i hope not i hope that we do take this moment we don't take this momentum to actually change the structure of the european union as we see any lack off power. which derives from the people so what we need to do is to strengthen the european parliament because for now we have with the council a counterpart who has to look at and national interests per se so what we do need is when it comes to just nation we need

a very strong which i only see in the european parliament when. the. nation. by the european people if you count each next vision for the e.u. after the next election well i suspect that the e.u. will continue to muddle along because there's not yet a consensus for the type of reform that parents are talking about that might develop one day but i think you know what people really have to ask themselves or it is what's the alternative right now if you want to get out of europe what that really be better and even for people in france and elsewhere who might not be particularly when they look at the details of what that would mean they often conclude that the alternative is even worse than their current reality. thank you for those thoughts nevertheless thank you all for being here today and. we'll be talking about the upcoming european elections to stay with us covering the election

over the weekend thanks for joining us hope we can you. trust. ablate. good. luck.

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a long drawn out combative and even violent election campaign crosstalk role model difficulty in effect one in 6 people in this world. join me british motivated. as we try to understand where a jackal the boxes may come on the cover knows a shelf. some time in the 26th. my great granddaughter. put the like in your life time in around half a century. your world will be around 2 degrees warmer. than evidently sea level rise by at least one meteor in the central coast. we're going to have some climate impacts maternal greater the more we see already

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stakes they have no nationality and the total made up of all of the exit polls that everyone has the right to. everyone has the right to say i roamed for. an early exit poll shows the social democrats winning the european parliamentary election in the netherlands the populist party led by gerry bo de came in 3rd the netherlands and britain where the 1st 2 countries to vote in the e.u. wide election official results won't be released until all the you countries.