Podcast: The 'cordon sanitaire' is what you want it to be

Say what you want about democracy, but at least it isn’t boring. That may be the most compelling case right now for the Churchillian worst form of governance except for all the others. Autocrats stay in power for decades, making them pretty banal, but democratic politics have become rather ossified, too. So who knows where the seemingly but definitely not inevitable decision by US president Joe Biden to renounce his claim to a second term will lead, but at least something other than path dependency happened.

That leaves Democratic-voter wannabes on this side of the Atlantic with a lot to think about — and comment on. Not that they don’t have enough leaks to plug in their own political ship, as the post-election dust starts to settle at EU institutions.

With the top of the European Commission confirmed, largely without far-right support, it was European Parliament’s turn to figure out how to juggle committee chairs to deny the far right as much influence as possible without itself appearing too undemocratic in the process.

But as we’ve seen, and said, many times, you don’t need the far right in power for the far right to win. Right now, that pseudo paradox is getting best expressed by the United Kingdom’s new kid on 10 Downing Street. Keir Starmer seems to have confused keeping the bad guys out of power for making sure he and his Labour can stay in it. Play his cards right, and he may just get his wish to have tea with Ursula von der Leyen.

All this brings us to a crossroads, and standing in the middle of that crossroads is Julien Hoez. The French, British, and European political analyst is just the person you want walking you through the intersectionality of these issues.

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