EU Confidential POLITICO Europe

As voting gets underway throughout the EU, we check in on the polls and learn which stories are dominating the headlines in capitals around Europe.
Host Sarah Wheaton discusses the latest polling numbers with our data reporter Hanne Cokelaere. Be sure to check out POLITICO's Poll of Polls for the latest insights.
We also hear from colleagues around Europe who explain which stories are uppermost in voters' minds as they head to the ballot box.
Aitor Hernández-Morales gives us a snapshot from Spain, where the vote is seen as a referendum on the government, and where a surprise diplomatic spat between Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and Argentina's President Javier Milei could sway some voters.
Charlie Duxbury in Sweden explains how a focus on migration is working for the far-right Sweden Democrats.
Clea Caulcutt in France says it's all about President Emmanuel Macron and far-right National Rally leader Jordan Bardella.
And Hans von der Burchard tells us how the war in Ukraine is polarizing Germany's governing coalition, and predicts how big a factor the recent killing of a German police officer could be for rival parties.
Further reading:
All politics is local: What the EU election is actually about in each country, by POLITICO
Putin’s a bigger deal than EU election in Europe’s frontline states, by Charlie Duxbury and Bartosz Brzeziński
Programming alert! We'll be doing a special video livestream taping of EU Confidential on Sunday from 8:30-9:15 p.m. Sign up to watch us on election night as the preliminary results are released, and then check your EU Confidential podcast feed on Monday morning for highlights of our election night analysis.

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With just a week to go until the European election and the campaign in full gear, we're focusing on how the vote will impact key EU policies such as health, energy, climate, technology and defense.
Will they be affected by the shake-up of the bloc's political landscape and the arrival of new MEPs and commissioners — or will continuity with the policy priorities of the last five years prevail? And what about the money to finance new and super costly defense ambitions and the green transition? Will the predicted surge of the far right affect these dynamics?
To answer these questions, we bring you a special episode. It's a conversation that took place recently at an exclusive, invitation-only POLITICO event organized for our Pro Connect subscribers — usually under Chatham House rules. It's moderated by POLITICO's policy editor Joanna Roberts, and her guests were: POLITICO's technology and competition editor Aoife White, energy and climate editor Cory Bennett, health editor Helen Collis and Jan Cienski, our senior policy editor and an expert on mobility and defense.
The event was part of our POLITICO Pro Connect "In Conversation with" series, which you can learn more about here.
Finally, we'll be recording a special livestream edition of EU Confidential on Sunday, June 9 starting at 8:30 p.m. as the EU election results roll in. Register here to watch live!

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This is your essential (and entertaining!) guide to the upcoming European election — everything you've wanted to know but been too afraid to ask.
With the crucial vote just two weeks away, we reached out to you, our European and American listeners, on social media and collected the most pressing election-related questions. Both veterans of the Brussels bubble and political novices seem to be wondering about everything from: can you vote online to does it even matter?
Host Sarah Wheaton and her panel of POLITICO's election experts delve into the nitty-gritty of voting and what happens next. Sarah's joined by politics reporter Eddy Wax, chief EU correspondent Barbara Moens and cybersecurity editor Laurens Cerulus.

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Ursula von der Leyen made a promise this week: if she secures another term as president of the European Commission, she will prioritize beefing up the EU's defenses against malicious disinformation from Moscow.
It's a top-of-agenda issue for many in Brussels and across the bloc, with less than a month until the European election and hostile actors using sophisticated tools such as generative AI.
In this episode, host Sarah Wheaton and her guests unpack some of the latest examples of interference from the Kremlin, such as sharing AI-generated deepfake videos of politicians or cloning the voices of public figures to impersonate them. Sarah is joined by Mark Scott, POLITICO's chief technology correspondent, and Jakub Kalensky, deputy director of the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats in Helsinki. They also discuss what's behind Europe's modest successes in countering Russian disinformation campaigns.
Further reading:
Moldova fights to free itself from Russia’s AI-powered disinformation machine by Mark Scott
Deepfakes, distrust and disinformation: Welcome to the AI election by Mark Scott
Spot the deepfake: The AI tools undermining our own eyes and ears by Mark Scott

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As recent national elections in several European countries have shown, far-right voters no longer fit the stereotype of the angry, old white man, but now often include women, young people and even migrants.
In this episode we unpack what drives voters to abandon the mainstream and more traditional party loyalties for the far right, and how poverty, or fear of it, motivates typical supporters of the AfD in Germany, Geert Wilder's PVV in the Netherlands, or Chega in Portugal.
Host Sarah Wheaton is joined by POLITICO reporters Hanne Cokelaere, James Angelos and Aitor Hernandez-Morales, who were recently dispatched to countries where far-right parties are gaining ground ahead of June's European election.
Later on we have a fascinating conversation with Catherine de Vries, professor of political science and dean of international affairs at Bocconi University in Milan. Her research focuses on how economic hardship and problems with public services such as schools, health care or transport can fuel the far right.
Further reading:
Germany’s far-right believers blame spy claims on ‘witch hunt’ by James Angelos
Portugal’s far-right vaccine stops working in the Algarve by Victor Jack

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It was a rare chance to see all the leading candidates from Europe's main political parties go head-to-head in a presidential-style debate to become the next head of the European Commission.
With just over a month to go until the European Parliament election, eight politicians met in the Dutch city of Maastricht and spent an hour and a half answering questions on key issues such as climate change, defense and European democracy.
If you missed it, don't worry — we've picked out the key moments and some of the more heated exchanges. Host Sarah Wheaton is joined by colleagues POLITICO's editor at large Nicholas Vinocur and Barbara Moens, chief EU correspondent and co-moderator of the debate. They give us their take on who won, who lost, and how it all went down. Did anyone manage to impress a room full of university students and over a quarter of a million people watching the debate online?

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