The schizophrenic politics of the European Union continue. On one hand, you have the far-right winning big in France’s first round of parliamentary elections and Eurosceptic Viktor Orbán taking over the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union (not to be confused with the European Council, which of course no one would ever do). On the other hand, you’ve got a trio of solid centrist and pro-EU personalities set to lead the bloc — and possibly without having to pander to the far-right (or whatever Giorgia Meloni’s ECR says it is) for their votes.

All said, there are ample arguments to be made for both the sky is falling and that everything will be OK. EUO’s Andrew Rettman returns to talk foremost about Hungary’s presidency and Pascal LeTendre-Hanns shares insights into French politics right now.

No matter how uncertain European policymakers might be about the future of their side of the Atlantic, they may be even more worried about the other side. That Biden-Trump debate was a doozy, eh? In the spirit of the Fourth of July (at least at time of recording), we’ll have a look at how the Olde World is looking at the old men vying to lead the “New” World.

Listen in and stay tuned as we further develop this venture with our partner, EUobserver. We welcome your feedback, so be in touch! You can subscribe hereand get us where your ears go for podcasts:

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Among other things, Martin Gak writes Inconclusive Thoughts; and William Glucroft writes The ‘Schland. We’d love to see you over there, too!

As a tiny operation, we do our best to spellcheck, factcheck, and contextualize all the information presented in the podcast. But pobody’s nerfect. If you hear something that doesn’t sound right — write! We welcome your feedback.

News doldrums, silly season, Sommerloch. There are many names for the summertime off-season, when there isn’t much to report except the sunburns of politicians as they run off to the beach with everyone else. This summer, however, is shaping up to be anything but slow. The long days are sure to be filled with horse-trading and hand-wringing of all kinds.

Both the United Kingdom and France hold snap elections around the same time in early July. Neither result is likely to be very pretty. Meanwhile, Hungary will be rotating in to run the Council of the EU, while the EU itself figures out what its next parliament and commission are going to look like. Amid all that, outgoing Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, will be stepping into NATO’s top civilian post (leaving behind a country that is more extreme right than ever).

Oh, and if Israel declares war on Hezbollah, Hezbollah may declare war on Cyprus — an EU member. Probably not, but just the idea of that is enough to underscore how big the gap is between talk of European defense and actually defending Europe, without the U.S. stepping in. Which depending how things go after the summer, it might not.

Award-winning European correspondent, Caroline de Gruyter, and New School prof, Claire Potter lend their expert hands to help us cover all these issues.

Listen in and stay tuned as we further develop this venture with our partner, EUobserver. We welcome your feedback, so be in touch! You can subscribe hereand get us where your ears go for podcasts:

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Among other things, Martin Gak writes Inconclusive Thoughts; and William Glucroft writes The ‘Schland. We’d love to see you over there, too!

As a tiny operation, we do our best to spellcheck, factcheck, and contextualize all the information presented in the podcast. But pobody’s nerfect. If you hear something that doesn’t sound right — write! We welcome your feedback.

Yes, the “center” of European politics “held.” But oh dear are things fragile. Neither the German nor French political establishment enjoys much legitimacy these days, and only the far-right seem to have come up with an “alternative” to them. Hey, say what you want, but at least it’s an ethos. While there are still plenty of socialists and center-left folks loafing about the halls of European power, it’s anyone’s guess what the EU looks like when its two biggest members are flirting with neo-fascist takeovers or ungovernable coalitions — if not nationally, at least regionally.

In next-largest Italy, the populist right already has things well in hand. EUO’s Valentina Saini returns to Euroscopic to discuss what’s up in Italy and the government’s push towards the fancy-sounding idea of “differentiated autonomy.” Giorgia Meloni may find herself in the awkward position of trying to boost her European credentials while placating the euroskeptic ones that got her into power in the first place. Oops.

But who needs illiberals to dismantle “European values” from within when liberals are happy to do it themselves? EUO columnist Shada Islam joins us to discuss the role that Israel’s destruction of Gaza is playing in splitting the EU — and if Arab and Muslim voters here can form the kind of potent constituency that their counterparts in the United States have been able to do.

Listen in and stay tuned as we further develop this venture with our partner, EUobserver. We welcome your feedback, so be in touch! You can subscribe hereand get us where your ears go for podcasts:

* Apple Podcasts

* Spotify

* EUObserver

Among other things, Martin Gak writes Inconclusive Thoughts; and William Glucroft writes The ‘Schland. We’d love to see you over there, too!

As a tiny operation, we do our best to spellcheck, factcheck, and contextualize all the information presented in the podcast. But pobody’s nerfect. If you hear something that doesn’t sound right — write! We welcome your feedback.

Let the somber postmortems and insider jockeying begin! The result of the 2024 European elections this week was, broadly speaking, what we all figured it would be. The populist right and illiberal voices did alright, but the lefty-ish folks held their own. The Macrons and Scholzs of the bloc more or less collapsed, while the Green wave of 2019 is all but washed up. And … they kinda deserve it?

What did seem pretty clear is that voters — the roughly 50% of them who voted, at least — are unhappy with politics as usual.

Discussing what happened and what now, Euroscopic brings a fine group of EUobserver reporters to the podcast table: Viktória Serdült in Hungary, Valentina Saini in Italy, and Piet Ruig in Brussels returns from last week to look to France.

So pull up a chair of your own, dig into some cacio e pepe, and listen along to a special episode recorded together from the heart of any home, and the source of all politics: the home kitchen.

Listen in and stay tuned as we further develop this venture with our partner, EUobserver. We welcome your feedback, so be in touch! You can subscribe hereand get us where your ears go for podcasts:

* Apple Podcasts

* Spotify

* EUObserver

Among other things, Martin Gak writes Inconclusive Thoughts; and William Glucroft writes The ‘Schland. We’d love to see you over there, too!

As a tiny operation, we do our best to spellcheck, factcheck, and contextualize all the information presented in the podcast. But pobody’s nerfect. If you hear something that doesn’t sound right — write! We welcome your feedback.

The nice thing about voting, other than that whole democracy thing, is it puts an end to months of filling airtime with unverifiable speculation. (Not that your humble Euroscopic hosts would ever stoop so low …). So Martin and I are, like millions of others across the European Union, eager to see polls open and await the results of European Elections.

But first! One last chance to fill airtime with unverifiable speculation. We run through the big stuff at stake in this election and the ways it could pan out. The head of Transparency International EU, Nick Aiossa, joins us to talk about how EU institutions and officials have gotten better at coming clean about conflicts of interest — and how much better they still need to get. Then EUobserver contributing reporter Piet Ruig tells us about his day out in a Brussels park with populist farmer protesters.

Listen, subscribe for free, and don’t go anywhere as the results come in. Most of all, if you’re a European citizen, go vote.

Listen in and stay tuned as we further develop this venture with our partner, EUobserver. We welcome your feedback, so be in touch! You can subscribe hereand get us where your ears go for podcasts:

* Apple Podcasts

* Spotify

* EUObserver

Among other things, Martin Gak writes Inconclusive Thoughts; and William Glucroft writes The ‘Schland. We’d love to see you over there, too!

As a tiny operation, we do our best to spellcheck, factcheck, and contextualize all the information presented in the podcast. But pobody’s nerfect. If you hear something that doesn’t sound right — write! We welcome your feedback.

It’s not long now until citizens of the European Union vote for their next European Parliament and, in turn, the Commission. So it’s a good time for Martin and William to figure out just where they stand on the issues. Voting can be confusing, which is why you can get some help with this handy test. Although we’ll be honest: It leaves a lot to be desired.

Don’t miss an interview with podcast returnee Simon Van Dorpe, an investigative journalist at Follow The Money. He reveals more insights into high-level power plays that can shape, make, and maybe break the EU and its democratic backbone.

And speaking of all those lofty values, EU member states are hardly on the same page when it comes to what to do with Israel and the country’s ongoing onslaught of Gaza. IHL professor Michael Becker joins us from Dublin to share his years of expertise, as more EU countries recognize Palestinian statehood while others strike awkward balances between their political support for Israel and their obligations to international law.

Listen in and stay tuned as we further develop this venture with our partner, EUobserver. We welcome your feedback, so be in touch! You can subscribe hereand get us where your ears go for podcasts:

* Apple Podcasts

* Spotify

* EUObserver

Among other things, Martin Gak writes Inconclusive Thoughts; and William Glucroft writes The ‘Schland. We’d love to see you over there, too!

As a tiny operation, we do our best to spellcheck, factcheck, and contextualize all the information presented in the podcast. But pobody’s nerfect. If you hear something that doesn’t sound right — write! We welcome your feedback.

Tech, climate, illiberalism. Any one of those is enough to fill a policymaker’s plate. So why not take on all three at once? It’s actually six, if you listen to Johnny Ryan. He’s on the frontlines of the biggest developments that will alter European way of life as we know it — and in many ways already have. In an extensive interview, Ryan sheds light on the malicious actors and processes that underpin and exploit how we communicate, trade, and vote.

Just before you want to hide under the covers, we also discuss what we can do about it. It turns out, many of the tools necessary are already there. They just need to get used effectively.

Elsewhere on the episode, we can’t ignore the application for arrest warrants against Israeli and Hamas leadership, announced this weekend at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Regardless how that develops, it’s a doozy. And we are eyeing developments in Georgia, particularly how they make the EU look fairly feckless.

Listen in and stay tuned as we further develop this venture with our partner, EUobserver. We welcome your feedback, so be in touch! You can subscribe hereand get us where your ears go for podcasts:

* Apple Podcasts

* Spotify

* EUObserver

Among other things, Martin Gak writes Inconclusive Thoughts; and William Glucroft writes The ‘Schland. We’d love to see you over there, too!

As a tiny operation, we do our best to spellcheck, factcheck, and contextualize all the information presented in the podcast. But pobody’s nerfect. If you hear something that doesn’t sound right — write! We welcome your feedback.

If your kind of music is the sort of derivative spectacle that sounds like something you could have asked ChatGPT for (fwiw, I did that here), then the Eurovision Song Contest is for you. If your kind of values culture seems confused about what artistic expression is for, then you may want to consider a job with the European Broadcasting Union, which puts on the annual event.

At least EVSC gives us plenty to talk about. And we do with EUobserver editor and friend of the pod, Andrew Rettman, as we imagine a world where people vote with as much enthusiasm in elections as they do for woah-oh-oh. If it were up to me, I’d say these Finnish guys for president; at least they were fun. But it seems I am in the minority on that one.

While on the topic of those vaunted European values, we also look at a Eurovision finalist that is going the other way: Georgia. Despite its European Union candidacy and widespread public gaze westward, its leaders thought they might mix things up with a “foreign agents” law. That can’t end well.

Another political surprise: The socialists take Catalonia. Not gonna lie, I did not see that coming. Add to that the double-whammy verdicts against Germany’s Alternative for Germany, and it was something of a good week for progressive and lefty-ish forces across the bloc. Let’s see if they can keep up that momentum as we lumber towards European elections in early June.

For the inside track on what’s up in Brussels, we chat with Hugo Ortiz Dubon, a former ambassador to the EU from El Salvador who’s heading up diplomatic dialogue via The Brussels Times.

Finally: Just as we wrapped up recording, two big European news items broke. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico was shot in an assassination attempt and, in the Netherlands, Geert Wilders got his right-wing coalition deal. Who will lead it remains TBD.

So, clearly lots already there for next week’s episode. As they say, stay with us!

Listen in and stay tuned as we further develop this venture with our partner, EUobserver. We welcome your feedback, so be in touch! You can subscribe hereand get us where your ears go for podcasts:

* Apple Podcasts

* Spotify

* EUObserver

Among other things, Martin Gak writes Inconclusive Thoughts; and William Glucroft writes The ‘Schland. We’d love to see you over there, too!

As a tiny operation, we do our best to spellcheck, factcheck, and contextualize all the information presented in the podcast. But pobody’s nerfect. If you hear something that doesn’t sound right — write! We welcome your feedback.