The Debate

There's the inroads of the far right, but also the broader desire for change. Introducing Berlin's answer to Zohran Mamdani: Elif Eralp, who led the far-left Die Linke party's historic win in Sunday's municipal elections in Berlin. We ask if the 45-year-old daughter of Turkish political exiles can push through her promises of rent freezes and nationalisation of private real estate companies. Just like in New York last year, affordable housing was a hot-button issue. It didn't hurt that her party ran a social media-savvy campaign.

Contrast that with the German chancellor's Christian Democrats, who not only lost the capital but for the first time since World War II failed to win enough votes to sit in a regional parliament.

The result in the northeastern state of Mecklenburg–West Pomerania is also a pain point for Germany's other historic big tent party: yes, the Social Democrats limited the damage, but the far-right AfD won more votes.

A capital city that goes red, a rust belt region that's turning increasingly far right – it's all part of a pattern. Is it about winners and losers of globalisation, a generation gap with younger voters sick of all the boomers who cling to power, some even say a gender gap with younger women voting left and younger men far right. How fast and how deep is the change in our politics?

Produced by François Picard, Théophile Vareille, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Charles Wente.

As the United States threatens Europe with more tariffs and eyes Greenland, Russia tests the continent’s resolve over Ukraine and the planet overheats, where do citizens feel the biggest threat is coming from? In her Wednesday state of the Union speech, the European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen went big on manning the borders, suggesting new tools to better deal with migration. This comes against in a context of Ceuta where over two days in July, tens of thousands of mostly Moroccans overran Spain’s North African enclave.

A blame game ensued as well as a diplomatic row between Madrid’s Socialist-led government and Italian far-right leader Georgia Meloni. Then there was the return of border checks in places like Germany where the far-right’s again eyeing inroads in regional elections this coming weekend. Our panel will comment on some of Real Madrid’s top stars refusing a show of solidarity with Ceuta which they say could be misinterpreted as an anti-migrant message. What do Europeans want? And what does an aging population need?

Produced by François Picard, Théophile Vareille, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Delphine Liou.

US president Donald Trump has previously talked about making Canada the 51st state, Now, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is in Europe, and the president of the European Commission has proposed the country ‘associate membership’. In this edition, we ask what that means and how it differs from the close status afforded to Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and the UK – countries which Carney is also visiting ahead of his own Strasbourg speech Thursday before the European Parliament. 

What are Canada’s options? What are Europe’s options as both the US and Russia are eyeing the Arctic? How closer can they really get when already ten EU nations – including France and Italy – have yet to ratify the CETA free trade agreement that is provisionally in effect with Ottawa?

The French – who have their own challenges with the far-right favourite to win next May’s presidential elections – will conclude this Canadian cycle when Emmanuel Macron hosts Carney in the tiny North Atlantic overseas territory of Saint Pierre and Miquelon. Ahead of the UN General Assembly in New York, we ask: will Europeans take on the United States head-on like Canada? Or will they massage relations with the world's biggest superpower?

 

Produced by François Picard, Théophile Vareille, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Charles Wente.

First, there was US President Donald Trump’s surprise decision to strike Iran. Then, came the quagmire of a war without an exit strategy. Now, six months later, with access to the Strait of Hormuz all but shut, global shipping has taken another hit the other end of the Arabian Peninsula. Iran-backed Houthis are threatening access to the Red Sea. 

Whereas Washington jumped at Israel’s request to take out Iran’s Supreme Leader in February, he is reluctant to go all in for his other ally in the region. In this edition FRANCE 24’s François Picard asks: why the sudden escalation between the Saudis and the Houthis, what to make of an Iraqi Shia militia hitting the kingdom’s main East-West pipeline and what who can ease our newfound energy insecurity and a Gulf region. 

 

Produced by François Picard, Antonia Cimini, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Charles Wente.

Talk about doomscrolling. In the past week, our timelines have been full of dark predictions of our imminent demise, including one by a Silicon Valley engineer who puts the chances of artificial intelligence wiping out humanity at better than 10 percent. The recent breach of the machine-learning programmers' site Hugging Face by AI machines is also triggering panic. In this edition, we ask: can machines destroy the planet on their own? In the age of technology, does problem-solving always override safety? 

US President Donald Trump has indicated that the AI race will not be paused. Meanwhile, the tech titans of Silicon Valley are sending mixed messages. They are asking for more regulations, guard rails and kill switches but are wary of any that could stymy innovation during the mass construction of data centres and upscaling. How do we put safety first?

 

Produced by François Picard, Maya Yataghene, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Charles Wente.

Once in a generation – sometimes once in a lifetime – a singular event blindsides the entire planet. 25 years on, does the memory of the 9/11 attacks on New York's Twin Towers, the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania fade into history, or is it still as raw and vivid as on that sunny September morning? 

Back then, the world was still processing the end of the Cold War. Western spies who had learned Russian suddenly had to take Arabic lessons. There was also the element of surprise compounded by the shock of non-state actors killing thousands on US soil. Each big anniversary since has been a marker of its own time.

Ten years ago, it was in the wake of the Paris attacks and Isis' bid to establish a caliphate in Syria and Iraq. Five years ago, it was during Covid when the whole planet faced a whole new unforseen common challenge.

We ask our panel how the present informs the past and the past informs the present – one that is more connected and plugged in, but also more fractured, with the balance of power between old allies and rivals currently in flux. What can we learn from September 11th?

 

Produced by François Picard, Maya Yataghène, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Andrew Hilliar.

With the digital age came the scramble for minerals below and to master the heavens above. US President Donald Trump wants a thousand rocket launches per year and with SpaceX’s reusable modules leading the way. The United States towers over the competition – which is why Ukraine’s president has to beg Elon Musk to use his Starlink low orbit satellite system to take out the Russian cruise missile launchers. 

Europe is late to the space race. Only around 10 launches are planned for its Ariane rocket next year. In this edition, we look at Norway’s first private launch of a German satellite this past weekend and more broadly, whether there’s room for everyone in an orbit already littered with debris. Those hoping for global cooperation on managing the skies above may be disappointed. Germany dropped out of co-hosting the Paris International Space Summit and the White House reportedly influenced US aerospace leaders to stay away. We ask: Does space need regulating? How urgently? And if not, what are the consequences?

Produced by François Picard, Maya Yataghène, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Andrew Hilliar.

Ukraine’s momentum on the battlefield was a primary focus at July’s NATO summit in Turkey. Kyiv’s long-range drones and US President Donald Trump’s surprise announcement that the Washington would allow Ukraine to produce Patriot missiles on in the country. However, Trump's deal has yet to materialize. Moreover, Russia has ramped up cruise missile launches and Ukraine has run out of air defenses to stop them. Moscow is also failing to stop incoming missiles. In today’s edition we ask: What happens in war when offense proves better than defense for both sides?

Could this lose-lose situation make mediation efforts like the one undertaken in the past days by Donald Trump’s emissaries more relevant? When Russia is still calling the war a ‘special military operation’, what will it take for Moscow and Kyiv to get serious about a lasting settlement? The Kremlin is looking beyond the battlefield to the momentum enjoyed by Putin-friendly populists in France and Germany, as well as the US midterm elections and NATO. In that context, we look at Berlin’s calibrated response to a drone attack at Leipzig Airport. Is war in Ukraine about to wind down or escalate a whole further?

Produced by François Picard, Andrew Hilliar, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Charles Wente.

The result was not enough to win outright, but certainly enough to shake Germany and Europe to their core: the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) trounced the ruling conservatives in the impoverished former East German state of Saxony-Anhalt in Sunday's election. We ask about the consequences of voting for an anti-immigrant, pro-Russian party that wants schools to teach less about the ills of Hitler and more about the glory of Bismarck.

Will Sunday's result further fuel the momentum of the far right in places like Sweden, which votes next Sunday or here in France, where the far right is currently the odds-on favourite in next spring's presidential elections? 

After dropping in on Nigel Farage's Reform UK party, French far-right leader Jordan Bardella was invited to speak to Italian business leaders at a weekend forum. Are we seeing a further normalisation of parties that once seemed fringe?

As for the mainstream, be it France or Germany, what does it need to offer to win back voters from MAGA and Putin-backed formations? You might ask: between Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz and France's outgoing leader Emmanuel Macron, who is on shakier ground?

Produced by François Picard, Andrew Hilliar, Juliette Laffont, Ilayda Habip, Charles Wente.

Could Europeans awaken next Monday to another shock bellwether moment? German voters could for the first time since World War II give an outright majority to a far-right party in regional elections. We ask about the AfD's push in Saxony-Anhalt and a charismatic lead candidate whose campaign strives to put charm above the vitriol usually associated with a party with pro-Nazi roots.

Saxony-Anhalt has a familiar tale: that of a former East German state rattled by globalisation with declining industry and an ageing population. Contrast its dying towns and villages with the dynamism of not-so-far-off cities like Berlin and Leipzig.

Speaking of Leipzig, the German government this week directly accused Russia over last month's drone attack on a Ukrainian cargo plane at Leipzig airport. Do German voters care that we're talking about the same Russia that's actively aligned with Moscow and a Trump administration that claims immigrants are a bigger threat to Europe than Russian hostility?

These questions may be the warmup for next spring's French presidential poll, where Marine Le Pen's party this week floated the idea of banning the Muslim headscarf in public.

Both the far-right National Rally and Germany's AfD oppose a more federal Europe. What happens if they win?

Produced by François Picard, Rebecca Gnignati, Juliette Laffont, Juliette Brown, Charles Wente.