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Fat, lazy and complacent, that is how Dharmendra Kanani from Friends of Europe describes centrist and leftist politicians today.
“The voter should never be taken for granted,” says Kanani who works as the Chief Spokesperson for the think tank Friends of Europe.
Joined by Suzanna Carp the EU Climate & Industrial Policy Specialist and Jacob Reynolds, the head of policy at MCC Brussels, the discussion on “Brussels, my love?” this weekend centres around the rise of polarisation in Europe and the reactions across Europe to the death of the right wing influencer Charlie Kirk who tragically lost his life on 10 September when shot at whilst giving a speech in Utah.
The panel also dived into the failure of the EU to agree on new climate targets expected by European law and the 2015 Paris Agreement. Jacob Reynolds is not surprised.
“This is symptomatic of a situation that happens a lot in Europe, where the preferred kind of modus operandi is to agree targets, sit around the table, shake each other’s hand, have a nice target, and then completely avoid any of the questions about how you would actually implement this.”, he said.
Suzanna Carp calls climate change the greatest challenge for humanity of this century.
“Europe is actually warming much faster than other places around the world, and so it is in our absolute interest to raise the stakes in Belém and then have indeed a higher target for Europe, so a higher NDC”, says Carp.
Finally, the panel discussed whether Israel should be banned from the 2026 Eurovision song contest due to the war in Gaza and the worsening humanitarian crisis it has caused. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) said Friday it will invite all 68 member countries to give their view at a general assembly meeting in November.
Watch “Brussels, my love?” in the player above.
