Ties between far-right parties and movements in Europe and the United States are growing. Annett Meiritz and Juliane Schäuble join this episode of The Zeitgeist to discuss their forthcoming book Die Allianz der Neuen Rechten (The Alliance of the New Right; Publisher: Heyne), which examines how these movements are building networks, learning from each other, and working together. They also discuss how these movements are mobilizing culture wars and their influence on transatlantic relations.



Host

Jeff Rathke, President, AGI

Guests

Eric Langenbacher, AGI Senior Fellow; Director, Society, Culture & Politics Program

Annett Meiritz, U.S. Correspondent, Handelsblatt

Juliane Schäuble, U.S. Correspondent, DIE ZEIT



Transcript

Jeff Rathke

Welcome to all of our listeners, pleased to have you back with us for another episode of The Zeitgeist, and I’m pleased of course to be with my colleague Eric Langenbacher. Eric, good morning.

Eric Langenbacher

Good morning, Jeff.

Jeff Rathke

And we are most proud to have two authors with us, co-authors of a new book, and they are Annett Meiritz and Juliane Schäuble.

Annett Meiritz

Thanks for having us.

Juliane Schäuble

Hello from me, too.

Jeff Rathke

Annett and Juliane have been correspondents in the United States for a long time; Annette with Handelsblatt, Juliane for a long time with Tagesspiegel and now with Die Zeit—congratulations on the new job, by the way.

Juliane Schäuble

Thank you.

Jeff Rathke

And they have also just written a book which will be published, how soon?

Juliane Schäuble

September 10th.

Jeff Rathke

September 10th. OK, so this podcast will be released before the publication of your book and we are pleased to contribute to some buzz around it, perhaps because it’s a fascinating look at the connections between far-right movements in the United States and in Europe. What’s the title of the book?

Juliane Schäuble

Die Allianz der neuen Rechten, the Alliance of the New Right.

Jeff Rathke

OK, terrific. We look forward to talking through some of the major findings that you write about. Maybe just to start, can you talk a little bit about where the ties exist between far-right politics in Europe and what we might call the MAGA, Trump-led Republican Party in the United States?

Annett Meiritz

Well, the one thing that surprised us ourselves when we started researching that book is that they kind of exist everywhere, on any level you can imagine. They exist on a very low level when it comes to, for example, Instagram influencers. One of our German interview partners described how he went to a MAGA party and then he was recognized by the team of RFK Jr. and now he’s in touch with RFK Jr., and that’s how it works. They know each other. They have their WhatsApp numbers, they know their Instagram reels, so that is one level of networking. The other one certainly is on the diplomatic level, the higher level.

But the main thing is that this networking works around the official ways. You have the official ways, diplomatic ways through embassies, through diplomats and high-level politicians, but you also have this huge, huge layer behind it, mostly out of sight for anyone to see. And that was one of the most fascinating aspects we found out.

Juliane Schäuble

One example: there is also this consultant that advises companies, and he said they are asking him now,