Podcast / The Time of Monsters / Dec 7, 2025

The Rise of the Far Right in Europe

On this episode of The Time of Monsters: David Broder on centrist failures feeding extremist politics.

The Nation Podcasts
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The Rise of the Far Right in Europe w/ David Broder | The Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer
byThe Nation Magazine

Only a few years ago, European elites were patting themselves on the back for fending off the

tide of right-wing anti-system parties (often styled as populists). But recent polls in France,

Germany and the United Kingdom show that that the far right is once again gaining traction,

thanks in no small part centrist governments that have demoralized the population and

legitimized xenophobia. David Broder, author of Mussolini’s Grandchildren and European editor

of Jacobin, wrote a wide-ranging essay on this for The New York Times. I spoke to David about

both the dismal decisions of mainstream parties and also possible alternatives.

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Co-leaders of the far-right Alternative for Germany party (AfD) Alice Weidel (L) and Tino Chrupalla (R) in Berlin on December 5, 2025.

(Tobias Schwarz / AFP via Getty Images)

Only a few years ago, European elites were patting themselves on the back for fending off the tide of right-wing anti-system parties (often styled as populists). But recent polls in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom show that that the far right is once again gaining traction, thanks in no small part to centrist governments that have demoralized the population and legitimized xenophobia. David Broder, author of Mussolini’s Grandchildren and European editor of Jacobin, wrote a wide-ranging essay on this for The New York Times. I spoke to David about both the dismal decisions of mainstream parties and possible alternatives. 

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The Nation Podcasts
The Nation Podcasts

Here's where to find podcasts from The Nation. Political talk without the boring parts, featuring the writers, activists and artists who shape the news, from a progressive perspective.

Trump is Using Terrorist Charges to Wage Political War w/ Josh Kovensky | The Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer
byThe Nation Magazine

Over at Talking Points Memo, Josh Kovensky has written an essay on the Trump

administration’s use of anti-terrorism law to target political groups it doesn’t like.

In that piece, Kovensky notes,

"Across the country, federal prosecutors are upgrading what would have been routine

prosecutions into terrorism cases when they involve people President Trump has cast as his

political enemies.

It represents a dramatic departure from how the Justice Department has historically used the

federal material support for terrorism statute. For decades, counterterrorism prosecutors have

largely reserved the statute — 2339A — for the kinds of audacious plots that wreak real, lasting

damage or whose ambition forms the stuff of movie screenplays."

I spoke to Kovensky about his essay and the history and politics of this dangerous legal

innovation.

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Jeet Heer

Jeet Heer is a national affairs correspondent for The Nation and host of the weekly Nation podcast, The Time of Monsters. He also pens the monthly column “Morbid Symptoms.” The author of In Love with Art: Francoise Mouly’s Adventures in Comics with Art Spiegelman (2013) and Sweet Lechery: Reviews, Essays and Profiles (2014), Heer has written for numerous publications, including The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, The American Prospect, The GuardianThe New Republic, and The Boston Globe.

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