European elections and the normalisation of the extreme right: What the Madrid summit means for the EU?
Leaders of the European Parliament’s far-right bloc, Patriots for Europe, held their first official summit in Madrid over the weekend under the slogan “Make Europe Great Again.” The gathering featured Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Italian Deputy Premier Matteo Salvini, the leader of France’s National Rally Marine Le Pen, and the Netherlands’ PVV leader Geert Wilders. The summit focused primarily on migration and praised re-elected U.S. President Donald Trump, despite his threats to increase tariffs on European imports.
Studio Europa Maastricht spoke with Dr Luana Russo, Associate Professor in Political Behavior and Quantitative Methods at Maastricht University, about the impact of the far-right alliance on the broader trajectory of European politics and their push to import Trump’s nationalist approach to the EU.
Read the full interview here.
Also read
-
Executive Board members for the next six months confirmed: Pamela Habibović, Jan Smits and Jan-Tjitte Meindersma
The Supervisory Board of UM has decided on a temporary new formation of the Executive Board. Pamela Habibović will become chair of the board, and Jan Smits will become rector magnificus. Both appointments are for a period of six months, until 1 September 2026.
-
“I’m a sjeng squared”
In primary school, his nickname was whirlwind —and that same energy comes across during the interview. “I’ve never been diagnosed, but I do think I have ADHD,” says the cheerful physics professor Marcel Merk. “And I’m gripped by the question: why is there something rather than nothing?“
-
New Year, New Impact: Building be/impact to turn learning into social change
In a world where corporate training budgets are growing and social challenges are accelerating, Julian Buschmaas and Fabien Laplace believe the real problem isn’t a lack of knowledge, it’s a lack of application.