8: Power Buster: EU Competition Commissioner MARGRETHE VESTAGER on populism and optimism
The Times calls her “the Great Dane of Brussels”. To the Independent she’s “the Harry Kane of the EU”. She’s the real-life inspiration for Prime Minister Birgitte Nyborg from the TV show ‘Borgen’. Now, fresh from coolly levying a record-breaking £4bn fine on Google for abusing its market dominance over Android users, EU Competition Commissioner MARGRETHE VESTAGER talks to Nick Clegg about power, populism, what makes the EU tick, and how technology could provide a way out of the present deadlock of resentment and rage.
For this season finale of ANGER MANAGEMENT, Nick journeys into the heart of the European project to the Berlaymont (where he used to be an intern, trivia fans) for an uplifting vision of where Europe could be going… with or without the UK.
“There’s a reason why the EU is probably the best place on Earth to live in history – especially if you’re a woman,” Margarethe tells him. “It’s a stable, safe place because we respect the individual. It’s human scale. We matter. You matter. And because you matter, it matters what you do.”
ANGER MANAGEMENT WITH NICK CLEGG will return in the autumn.
Margrethe Vestager on populists: “One of the things I hate about populists is, very often they hate other people. When responsibility comes round, they’re not to be found…”
On Brexit: “I’m happily married but I’ve discovered that if you bitch a little every day, you end up divorced.”
“A lot of people have put a lid on their sorrow – because Brexit is now a job you have to do. But underneath it is a very sad state of emotion.”
“The problems around us, they become the work that we have to do. But the world itself is a wonderful place.”
Anger Management with Nick Clegg is created by Podmasters, producers of the hit Brexit podcast Remainiacs. Producer: Andrew Harrison. Audio production: Sophie Black. Music by Jon Luc Heffernan used under Creative Commons licence. Photo: Paul Heartfield.
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