THERE WERE MOMENTS THIS TIME THAT FELT MORE DARK AND FEARFUL
Former politician Ed Balls explores the rise of populism in Europe for a new series. He tells GEORGIA HUMPHREYS about the most shocking moments during filming
During his first foray into documentary-making, Ed Balls was wary of being too opinionated.
The 2018 series, Travels in Trumpland With Ed Balls, saw the ex-shadow chancellor walk in the shoes of a variety of supporters of uS President Donald Trump.
He took a similar tack with his new BBC2 show, Travels in Euroland With Ed Balls, in which he explores the rise of populism in six different countries across Europe (Holland, Spain, Poland, italy, France and germany).
But, while filming this series, there were moments which “felt more dark and fearful”, he confides – partly, perhaps, because of the cultural and geographical closeness to the uK.
Ed recalls going for dinner at the house of a politician from the AfD (a right-wing to far-right political party in germany). “in the afternoon, i look at a poster which the AFD had used in the election. “The poster is a pregnant white woman, and the slogan is ‘new germans? We can breed our own’, and he has made a speech saying we should eject 200,000 migrants a year.
“i go and have dinner with him, we have a long conversation. it’s quite a challenging conversation – i didn’t particularly enjoy it.” in the first episode, the affable former politician is in Holland where in Dutch tradition, Sinterklaas (St nicholas) has a sidekick named Zwarte Piet, or Black Pete, who usually appears as a blackface character.
Ed goes on set for a film about the character, who is said to go back centuries, and today still appears in parades across the country on December 5, the Dutch St nicholas holiday.
“i had a sense it was going to be a challenge,” he notes. “But, actually, i had no idea there was going to be scores of these ‘Black Petes’, and they were all going to be white, and it was quite slapstick.
“Your first reaction is to recoil, and i think, intellectually, i didn’t shift from that. But, at the same time, you come to understand why it’s so hard for the majority of Dutch people who are involved in this and why it’s such a potent issue for populist politics, because (geert) Wilders (leader of the Party for Freedom – a nationalist, right-wing political party in the netherlands) basically says, ‘You should be proud to be Dutch’, and for Dutch people and their kids, who grew up with this, they think, ‘Well, i don’t want to not be proud of my childhood or my Christmas traditions’.”
Ed spent 20 years in politics, and is married to Labour MP Yvette Cooper.
Following Jeremy
Corbyn’s decision to resign as leader of the Labour Party, four women are in the running for the top job – shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry, shadow business secretary rebecca Long-Bailey and backbenchers Jess Phillips and Lisa nandy.
Discussing the idea of a woman heading up Labour, Ed says: “it’s not good that the Conservative Party have now had two women prime ministers, and the Labour Party is yet to have one. Because Labour has had two short-lived female leaders, but never elected, and never as prime minister. So, let’s hope.”
But he won’t let on who he thinks should be leader, saying he doesn’t think there’s a front runner.
“Who Labour chooses as leader and how they do the job – and whether they do this in a way which is about not only being an effective opposition but building a mainstream alternative, which can reach into the centre ground – i think that’s going to become much, much more important.” ●●Travels in Euroland With Ed Balls starts on BBC2 on Thursday, January 23 at 9pm.