"Populists? Bring them into the tent". An interview with political scientist Richard Higgott about the challenges of populism in Europe
ADVERTISEMENT30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, which was meant to signal "the end of history", the global world order and multilateralism are under attack.
Populism and nationalism have spread across Europe and beyond, putting the political establishment on the defensive.
Next month at the Rhodes Forum, hosted by the Berlin-based Dialogue of Civilizations Research Institute, policymakers, economists and global thinkers gather on that Greek island to rethink the parameters of globalization.
At the Forum, the Rhodes Report will be released that takes a look at where the world is headed.
Its lead author is Richard Higgott, Emeritus Professor of International Political economy at Warwick University and the Institute of European Studies at the Free University of Brussels.
In the run-up of the Rhodes Forum, Euronews' Brussels correspondent Stefan Grobe spoke with him about the challenges of nationalism and populism in Europe in the era of Trump and Brexit.
Excerpts:
"The genie, the populist genie, is not going back in the bottle. That does not mean, however, that some of the things that populists have advocated can't be rolled back."
"The big myth that has been propagated successfully by the populists is that it's immigration, it's globalization that has led to basically the de-industrialization of various parts of Europe. It's not! It's technology, it's artificial intelligence."
"There has got to be a conversation with these people. You can't shut them out of the tent, because that gives them an oxygen."