186. President Aleksandar Vučić: Russia, China, and How Serbia Could Join the EU
27 April 2026
375. Germany’s Fight Against the Far Right
-
Podcast
-
26 February 2025
Has Trump already become a strategic adversary to Europe? Will Starmer’s White House visit be his ‘Love, Actually’ moment? How can Europe actually become independent from the US?
Join Rory and Alastair as they answer all these questions and more.
The Rest Is Politics is powered by Fuse Energy. Fuse are giving away FREE TRIP+ membership for all of 2025 to new sign ups ? TRIP+ gets you ad-free listening, discounts, and early access to episodes and pre-sale tickets for live shows! To sign up and for terms and conditions, visit GetFuse.com/Politics ⚡
The Rest Is Politics Plus: Become a member to receive early access to Question Time episodes to live show tickets, enjoy ad-free listening for both TRIP and Leading, receive our exclusive newsletter, benefit from discount book prices on titles mentioned on the pod, and join our members’ chatroom on Discord. Just head to therestispolitics.com to sign up, or start a free trial today on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/therestispolitics.
Get our exclusive NordVPN deal here ➼ nordvpn.com/restispolitics It's risk-free with Nord's 30 day money back guarantee ✅
Instagram: @restispolitics
Twitter: @restispolitics
Email: restispolitics@gmail.com
Assistant Producers: Evan Green, India Dunkley
Video Editor: Joshua Smith
Social Producer: Jess Kidson
Producers: Nicole Maslen, Fiona Douglas
Senior Producer: Dom Johnson
Head of Content: Tom Whiter
Exec Producers: Tony Pastor, Jack Davenport
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Alistair
Ich hoffe, es geht dir gut. Highly appreciate your interest and insights on German politics. As a German, I have to say that I got a tiny bit upset when you discussed the biggest challenges of Friedrich Merz ahead, and Rory mentioned that Germany is seeing unprecedented numbers of migrants. What is often overlooked in this debate, especially fuelled by the Axel Springer media conglomerate (similar to the Murdoch empire) which is run by Elon-affiliate and the owner of the largest private collection of paintings of female genitalia Matthias Döpfner – is that one of the largest migrant groups in Germany are Ukrainian refugees who receive full benefits faster in Germany compared to eg France. Of course the right wing media focusses on brown Muslim migrants, meaning this is hardly covered. At the same time, it is incredibly hard for people with a refugee status to work, which is of course a huge loss considering the turning demographic pyramid, which is also the basis for the (super fucked) German pension system. I personally blame Merz (and the Greens and the SPD aren’t any better) for not putting the topics at the heart of the political debate that actually really negatively impact our daily lives and our future: the growing wealth inequality, the failing pension system, the climate crisis and severely underfunded infrastructure (from trains to schools).
What do you think would be the best way for Merz to tackle those problems? Btw he is hugely unpopular in Germany even in his own party, he is seen as representing corporate interests instead of the commonwealth.
Love the podcast. Shoutout to my favourite German politics podcast “Lage der Nation” which gives a comprehensive weekly view on the state of German and global affairs, which I can 1000% recommend. Viel Erfolg weiterhin und beste Grüße aus Berlin ?
Danke sehr. Ich werde Rory Ihre Botschaft schicken