Putin May Not Like How Hes Changed Europe
Vladimir Putin\u2019s invasion of Ukraine has transformed Europe within a matter of weeks. A continent once fractured by the refugee crisis is now taking in millions of refugees. Countries such as Germany have made considerable pledges to increase military spending. The European Union said it would cut off Russian oil and gas \u201cwell before 2030\u201d \u2014 a once unthinkable prospect. The European project seems more confident in itself than at any other time in recent history.\n\nBut some European countries are also seeing trends in the opposite direction. This month in Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orban\u2019s nationalist government won re-election easily. The far-right leader Marine Le Pen lost this past weekend\u2019s French presidential election to the incumbent, Emmanuel Macron, but secured a significant 41.5 percent of the vote, up from 33.9 percent in 2017. And nationalist movements \u2014 Brexit in Britain, the Five Star Movement in Italy and others \u2014 have become potent political forces in recent years.\n\nSo what\u2019s next for Europe? Will Putin\u2019s invasion reinvigorate the collective European project? Or will the continent revert to its preinvasion path of fracture, division and nationalism?\n\nIvan Krastev is the chairman of the Center for Liberal Strategies in Sofia, Bulgaria and the author of numerous books, including \u201cAfter Europe\u201d and, with Stephen Holmes, \u201cThe Light That Failed: Why the West Is Losing the Fight for Democracy.\u201d He\u2019s also one of my favorite people to talk to on the subject of Europe, liberalism, democracy and the tensions therein.\n\nWe discuss how European identity went from revolving around war to being centered on economic trade, why Europe has treated the Ukrainian refugee crisis so differently from previous refugee crises, how the West\u2019s overly economic understanding of human motivation blinded it to Putin\u2019s plans, what the relative success of politicians like Le Pen and Orban means for the future of Europe, how fears of demographic change can help explain phenomena as different as Putin\u2019s invasion and Donald Trump\u2019s election, whether Putin\u2019s invasion can reawaken an exhausted European liberalism and much more.\n\nMentioned:\n\n\u201cThe End of History?\u201d by Francis Fukuyama\n\nThe End of History and the Last Man by Francis Fukuyama\n\n\u201cWe Are All Living in Vladimir Putin\u2019s World Now\u201d by Ivan Krastev\n\n\u201cThe Crisis of American Power: How Europeans See Biden\u2019s America\u201d by Ivan Krastev\n\n\u201cThe Power of the Past: How Nostalgia Shapes European Public Opinion\u201d by Catherine E. de Vries and Isabell Hoffmann from Bertelsmann Stiftung\n\nBook Recommendations:\n\nFree by Lea Ypi\n\nThe Age of Unpeace by Mark Leonard\n\nTime Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov\n\nThoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.\n\nYou can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of \u201cThe Ezra Klein Show\u201d at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.\n\n\u201cThe Ezra Klein Show\u201d is produced by Annie Galvin, Jeff Geld and Rog\xe9 Karma; fact-checking by Michelle Harris; original music by Isaac Jones; mixing by Jeff Geld; audience strategy by Shannon Busta. Our executive producer is Irene Noguchi. Special thanks to Kristin Lin and Kristina Samulewski.