Guilty! Marine Le Pen and the future of Europe’s populist right

Marine Le Pen has been convicted of embezzling EU funds,
potentially ruining her plans to run for the French presidency in
2027.


Marine Le Pen was seen as the frontrunner to replace Emmanuel
Macron at that election so the judge’s decision to ban her from
standing for public office for the next five years has led to a
backlash from her supporters and right-wing European allies.


Nick and Amol talk to Yascha Mounk, an expert on populism and
author of The Identity Trap, about what this verdict means for
Europe’s populist parties (6:12).


And Nick and Amol get all sentimental in Moment of the Week
(42:06).


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The Today Podcast is hosted by Amol Rajan and Nick Robinson who
are both presenters of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. Amol was
the BBC’s media editor for six years and is the former editor of
the Independent, he’s also the current presenter of University
Challenge. Nick has presented the Today programme since 2015, he
was the BBC’s political editor for ten years before that and also
previously worked as ITV’s political editor.


This episode was made by Lewis Vickers with Izzy Rowley. Digital
production was by Izzy Rowley. The technical producer was Dafydd
Evans. The editor is Louisa Lewis. The executive producer is
Owenna Griffiths.