Euroscepticism in Germany: Normalisation or radicalisation?

This week, hosts Jeremy Cliffe and Jana Puglierin discuss German election campaign frontrunner Friedrich Merz’s bid to win Bundestag votes on migration with support from the far-right AfD. Political scientist Marcel Lewandowsky joins the podcast to discuss the apparent rise of Euroscepticism in Germany: does Merz’s gambit mean his CDU envisions a more unilateral Germany in Europe? What’s behind the rise of the AfD and the anti-establishment BSW? And is Germany’s turn towards forms of Euroscepticism part of a wider European trend—or a distinct (and distinctly alarming) phenomenon? 

Guests:

Marcel Lewandowsky, lecturer at the Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz and author of the 2024 book Was Populisten Wollen (What Populists Want).