Inside Politics with Hugh Linehan

As the Dáil shuts down for the summer it's time for Hugh, Pat and Jack to take stock of the term gone by. But the biggest political event of the year didn't happen in Leinster House. The April fuel protests left their mark on Irish politics as few other events of recent years have. In part two: How have the various parties navigated the term? Has Mary Lou McDonald steadied the SF ship, and could a forthcoming book by a former party insider cause renewed problems? Can the Social Democrats maintain their recent momentum? Has Simon Harris dialled down his high-energy approach to politics? And when Harris rotates back into the taoiseach's office next year, will Micheal Martin still be the man he’ll take over from? Finally: Martin has repeatedly said this Government will be about results, delivery and substance. But will there be enough of that to satisfy voters? On the cost of living issue in particular, the challenge is steep - even with the next election a long way off.

Last week an appeals court opened the way for Marine Le Pen of French far-right party National Rally to stand in next year's presidential election. If the far right comes to power in Paris it will be the culmination of a long journey that is outlined in The Dark Side of France: A History of the Far Right, a new book by Irish journalist Enda O’Doherty. Hugh talks to O’Doherty about his book and what a Le Pen victory would mean. They discuss tensions within National Rally between economically liberal conservatism and its working-class base and trace the far right’s roots from the Dreyfus Affair and antisemitism through Action Française, Vichy collaboration, the Algeria crisis and how Marine’s father Jean-Marie Le Pen built up National Rally, then called Front National.

Ellen Coyne and Cormac McQuinn join Hugh Linehan to look back on the week in politics:·       Sinn Féin’s Planning for Constitutional Change Bill, which obliges the Government to draft and publish a Green Paper on unification within 18 months, failed to win support from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, or independents.  ·       All Government TDs also voted against a PBP Bill to ban hare coursing. The Bill presented an issue where the party whip could have been spared in favour of a free vote, given the public’s clear support to outlaw the practice. The Bill was overwhelmingly defeated by 125 votes to 24. ·       And this week saw Reform UK leader Nigel Farage and far-right French leader Marine Le Pen take the biggest political gambles of their respective careers.Plus, the panel picks their favourite Irish Times pieces of the week:·       Graham Platner crashes and burns, dwindling swag bags for visiting journalists, and the derelict ‘Carlton’ site on O’Connell Street is snapped up by MetroLink.

For Germany, football is often a reflection of the nations’ stability.“When Germany is going well, things are going well on the pitch” Irish Times Berlin correspondent Derek Scally tells the Inside Politics podcast.Following another premature exit from a world cup tournament they won only 12 years ago; in football, as in German politics, the future is uncertain.Host Hugh Linehan asks where the major fault lines are in the upcoming federal elections in September. Elections, Scally explains, that are likely to be won by the far-right party Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) bar any major shifts.“Establishment parties are seen as lacking ideas and energy” Scally says. “The sense of a government exhausting its political potential seems to be a general agreement around Berlin”.Europe’s biggest economy is vulnerable on a number of fronts. It relies on Chinese manufacturing for its automotive sector, while facing major competition from increasingly popular, often cheaper, Chinese car makers.Though the Christian Democrats’ Fredrick Merz has only been Chancellor for a year, “frustration” and “fatigue” are already creeping into public sentiment, Scally says.Could his 34-point plan announced last week, including pension reforms, tax cuts, and business deregulation, turn things around? Produced by Andrew McNair

British MP Nigel Farage has resigned as an MP triggering a by-election in the constituency of Clacton-on-Sea which he says he will stand in.It comes amid a row over his financial support, after The Sunday Times reported he had not declared benefits, including staff and security, received from his ally George Cottrell, who was convicted of fraud in the US.“I’ve done nothing wrong” Farage said on a live stream provided by his UK Reform party and broadcast on British news channels.Hugh speaks to our London Correspondent Mark Paul in the moments after the speech about what this move represents for British politics, and what happens next.Produced by Andrew McNair. 

Pat Leahy and Jack Horgan-Jones join Hugh Linehan to look back on the week in politics:·       Ireland’s presidency of the Council of the European Union got off to a slightly awkward start at the opening ceremony at Dublin Castle on Wednesday when guest Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned against “material emanating from a plant in Ireland” being used in Russia’s war effort. The Ukrainian president didn’t name Aughinish Alumina, but his feelings were clear.·       Dozens of solicitors walked out of District Court rooms on Wednesday in protest against a new pay system for legal aid. This marked an escalation in tensions with Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan who has pushed the reform through.·       The Government are not going to act on Oireachtas committee recommendations on the decriminalisation of the possession of drugs for personal use.·       And as the United States celebrates its 250th birthday, how has the country lived up to the principals and aspirations of its founding fathers?

Hugh Linehan is joined by Alex Kane to discuss the double life of disgraced politician Jeffrey Donaldosn and its broader impact on the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) as well as Ulster unionism overall. Alex Kane is an Irish News columnist and a political commentator as well as a former director of communications for the Ulster Unionist Party. The pair discuss a recent wave of stories that reveal the hypocritical behaviour of self-professed christian Donaldson over the course of his career; from projectile vomiting on the Mayor of Beijing to swigging from a wine bottle in the House of Commons and being spotted entering a gay sauna.  Kane says it seems as if no one in the DUP attempted to address this highly inappropriate behaviour. He also highlights a growing conspiracy theory among unionists who believe the British government may have used this information to blackmail Donaldson to return to the Northern Ireland Assembly.  In today’s episode, they discuss what all of this spells for the future of unionism in Ulster.    

Last week Pat Leahy sat down with former Labour leader Pat Rabbitte for an interview about his life in politics. Rabbitte is now retired but for decades he was one of the most recognisable faces and voices of centre left politics in Ireland. As a minister in the 2011 Fine Gael-Labour coalition, he witnessed first hand the events explored in our recent mini series on the subject. He talked about the decisions he made as party leader and as a minister, as well as his formative years in the west of Ireland and 1960s America, and what he thinks of today’s splintered centre-left.

Harry McGee and Cormac McQuinn join Pat Leahy to look back on the week in politics: All anyone can talk about this week is the weather. While the country enjoys the warmth, the Government still has to find balance between spending to prevent climate change and spending to mitigate the impact of change that has already arrived. Keir Starmer may be gone but the UK's biggest problem remains: the lack of growth in their economy. Proposed “reform” (read: scrapping) of the “triple lock” restriction on Irish overseas military deployment has run into trouble due to disquiet among Fianna Fail backbenchers. If not a rebellion, there was certainly “a renewed amount of grumbling” over the issue. But will it be a real problem for Taoiseach Micheal Martin? Plus the panel pick their IT stories of the week including a plea for underground bins, Michael McDowell’s bold predictions and the divestment of Catholic church patronage.