Former UK prime minister Theresa May and Australia’s former leader Julia Gillard debated the rise of strongman politics in “a world of absolutism”.
May said it was for this reason that Putin’s war came as no surprise to the British.
“Here in the UK, we’re perhaps less surprised at anything Vladimir Putin would do given that Russia used a nerve agent on the streets of one of our cities in an attempt to kill two people and sadly, one British citizen lost her life as a result of that,” she said. “The fact that Russia has no compunction whatsoever in using a chemical weapon on a street like that ... I don’t think anybody can be surprised by anything with Putin,” she said.hinting he may use them to deter the West from entering the war on Ukraine’s side.
“What we’re dealing with here is not just defending Ukraine but defending the very essence of democracy itself,” May said. Gillard and May’s discussion about the rise of political strongmen, such as Putin, Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro and former US president Donald Trump, a trend Gillard dubbed the “era of hyper-masculine populist” politics, prompted May’s assessment of Putin.Credit:Gillard questioned May on why democracies were “deliberately choosing that image of leadership”.