Introduction

This week, Elisabeth Zerofsky of The New York Times Magazine joins us after recent reporting trips in Paris and Berlin. In Part 1, we talked about the upcoming French election and the rise of the far-right in France. The West is looking on nervously as President Macron tries to fend off a challenge from Marine Le Pen, a populist with ties to Putin. Regardless of the outcome, French voters have veered to the right—with fear of Islam driving public debate and mainstream politicians refusing to disavow the "Great Replacement" conspiracy theory.

In Part 2 of the discussion, available here for subscribers, the conversation shifts to Germany's growing sense of crisis. Is Germany the new "sick of man of Europe"? During the Trump years, American liberals saw Angela Merkel as a sort of substitute leader of the free world. But Merkel legacy's may be in for a not-so-kind reckoning. Also: Damir wonders out loud whether Shadi is, deep down, a crypto-neoconservative.

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Required Reading

• "The End of History Dies Hard in Berlin" by Elisabeth Zerofsky (Wisdom of Crowds)

• "France's Far Right Turn" by Elisabeth Zerofsky (New York Times)

• "'Worst crisis since the second world war’: Germany prepares for a Russian gas embargo" by (Financial Times)

• Philly D.A., directed by Ted Passon, Yoni Brook, Nicola Salazar (Amazon)

• Trump's meeting with Germany