European Liberal Forum

After 14 years, Aleksandar Vučić has lost power in Serbia. And the people who brought him down weren’t career opposition politicians; they were students. In this episode of the Liberal Europe Podcast, Ricardo Silvestre welcomes back Natan Albahari, International Officer of the Movement of Free Citizens (PSG), for a candid conversation on how two years of mass student-led protests ended Serbia’s longest-running autocracy by a landslide. They discuss why Serbia’s democratic opposition couldn’t capitalise on the mood themselves; why PSG took the strategic decision not to run its own list and instead throw its infrastructure behind the student movement; the state capture Vučić leaves behind and the long road to clean it up; the presidential elections that must now be held by the end of December; why the new government may not wave EU flags, but why its actions will do more for European integration than fourteen years of Vučić’s declarations ever did. This podcast is produced by the European Liberal Forum in collaboration with Movimento Liberal Social and Fundacja Liberté!, with the financial support of the European Parliament. Neither the European Parliament nor the European Liberal Forum are responsible for the content or for any use that be made of.

Why is Poland facing another Constitutional Tribunal crisis? What is the story behind the current events? How is legal argumentation instrumentalized by political actors to legitimize partisan objectives? How does systemic political polarization create or sustain a "default state of unlawfulness" within a government? And can the rule of law be fully restored in Poland? Leszek Jazdzewski (Fundacja Liberte!) talks with Krzysztof Izdebski, a lawyer and the Director of Advocacy at the Stefan Batory Foundation. He was previously affiliated with organizations including Watchdog Poland Civic Network, ePaństwo Foundation, and the Open Spending EU Coalition. Tune in for their talk! Watch the conversation on YouTube: https://youtu.be/PGu-QBy_6qM This podcast is produced by the European Liberal Forum in collaboration with the Movimento Liberal Social and the Fundacja Liberté!, with the financial support of the European Parliament. Neither the European Parliament nor the European Liberal Forum are responsible for the content or for any use that be made of.

How do you rebuild trust in elections after years of systemic electoral fraud? For Bosnia and Herzegovina, the answer this year was historic: biometric voter identification and ballot scanners, rolled out for the first time in general elections — a change that civil society campaigned for, that 86% of citizens said they wanted, and that political parties fought at every step. In this episode of the Liberal Europe Podcast, Ricardo Silvestre sits down with Hasan Kamenjaković, PR Manager at the Coalition for Free and Fair Elections, Pod lupom — the civic coalition of 37 NGOs that has monitored elections across Bosnia and Herzegovina since 2014. They discuss how Pod lupom’s recommendations have shaped nearly 60 improvements to Bosnia’s electoral law (many pushed through by the Office of the High Representative when politicians refused), why Bosnia chose a hybrid combination of real-time biometric authentication and ballot-scanning rather than any single existing model, how Smartmatic came to be the chosen vendor, the disinformation campaigns politicians waged against the new technologies, and why — despite the technical success — Bosnia’s road to the European Union still feels like baby steps. A substantive, frontline conversation on what it actually takes to protect the electoral will of citizens — and why civil society remains the engine of democratic reform in the Western Balkans.

Are women’s rights compatible with religion? How have women's rights evolved in the Islamic Republic? Has the recent conflict involving Israel, the United States, and Iran brought Iran any closer to freedom? And what is the endgame? Leszek Jazdzewski (Fundacja Liberte!) talks with Masih Alinejad, an Iranian-American journalist and human rights activist, widely recognized as one of the most prominent voices for women's rights and democratic freedom in Iran. Having survived three foiled assassination plots orchestrated by the Iranian government, which led to federal convictions in New York in 2025, Alinejad continues her fearless advocacy for women's rights, freedom of expression, and an end to gender apartheid. Tune in for their talk! Watch the video of the conversation: https://youtu.be/pNcnik0W2Zk Masih Alinejad will be a guest during this year's edition of the Freedom Games, a festival of ideas co-organized by the European Liberal Forum on October 23-25, 2026, in Lodz, Poland, where she will be awarded the prestigious Medal of Freedom. Find out more: igrzyskawolnosci.pl/event/igrzyska-wolnosci-2026 This podcast is produced by the European Liberal Forum in collaboration with the Movimento Liberal Social and the Fundacja Liberté!, with the financial support of the European Parliament. Neither the European Parliament nor the European Liberal Forum are responsible for the content or for any use that be made of.

In this episode of the Liberal Europe Podcast, Ricardo Silvestre and Leszek Jażdżewski look ahead to Freedom Games 2026 in Łódź, where liberals, thinkers, and changemakers will gather under the theme “Tech for Humanity”. This podcast is produced by the European Liberal Forum in collaboration with Movimento Liberal Social and Fundacja Liberté!, with the financial support of the European Parliament. Neither the European Parliament nor the European Liberal Forum are responsible for the content or for any use that be made of.

What should be a proper European response to the hybrid attacks by Russia on European territory? How should we view the post-American Middle East and its relationship with Europe? What role is Italy playing today within the EU and what are (and what should be) the country’s ambitions? And what is the current EU policy on migration? Leszek Jazdzewski (Fundacja Liberte!) talks with Francesco Rocchetti, the Director of the Europe’s Futures Initiative (EFI). He previously served as Secretary General of the Italian Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI) in Milan and Director of the Rome MED Dialogues. Tune in for their talk! Watch the video of the conversation: https://youtu.be/sjuBc4Qlde8 This podcast is produced by the European Liberal Forum in collaboration with the Movimento Liberal Social and the Fundacja Liberté!, with the financial support of the European Parliament. Neither the European Parliament nor the European Liberal Forum are responsible for the content or for any use that be made of.

In this episode of the Liberal Europe Podcast, we go to Łódź for a live recording of the panel with the title "Strategic Foresight: Identifying Risks, Threats and Opportunities for the European Union", where Leszek and Ricardo are joined on stage by Jolanta Szymańska, the Head of the European Union programme at the Polish Institute of International Affairs, and Cátia Moreira de Carvalho, a Marie Curie Fellow at Dublin City University’s School of Law and Government. This podcast is produced by the European Liberal Forum in collaboration with Movimento Liberal Social and Fundacja Liberté!, with the financial support of the European Parliament. Neither the European Parliament nor the European Liberal Forum are responsible for the content or for any use that be made of. Show notes This podcast, as well as previous episodes, is available on SoundCloud, Apple Podcast, Stitcher and Spotify. You can follow the work done by Liberté in Polish and in English. To know more about the Freedom Games go here, follow it on Facebook and X/Twitter, and you can see previous sessions on YouTube here.

How is a waning liberal order shifting the ground beneath Europe's feet?What does Russia’s aggressive revisionism mean for the future of European security?How is Turkey leveraging cooptation to play global powers against each other?Can Europe successfully navigate an increasingly intense strategic and economic rivalry with China? Leszek Jazdzewski (Fundacja Liberte!) talks with Dimitar Bechev, the Director of the Dahrendorf Programme at St Antony's College, University of Oxford, as well as Senior Fellow at Carnegie Europe. His latest book is "The Scramble for Europe: Russia, China, and Turkey Challenging Regional Order" (Oxford University Press, 2026). Tune in for their talk! Watch the video of the conversation: https://youtu.be/Cm6X9RyBiso The conversation revolves around Dimitar Bechev's book: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-scramble-for-europe-9780197781449 This podcast is produced by the European Liberal Forum in collaboration with the Movimento Liberal Social and the Fundacja Liberté!, with the financial support of the European Parliament. Neither the European Parliament nor the European Liberal Forum are responsible for the content or for any use that be made of.

What can be a strategic vision for EU finance and industry moving forward? In this episode of the Liberal Europe Podcast, Ricardo Silvestre (Movimento Liberal Social), welcomes (back) Marco Cecchi de'Rossi, and also Marianna Vintiadis and Filippo De Nicola, for a panel discussion on what the stress points are, but also the opportunities, for better decision processes in the European Union. Marianna is Partner for Forensic Investigations & Intelligence at RSM Italy and CEO of RSM Corporate Finance, Filippo is an M&A Strategy for Aerospace & Defense at Silicon Mountain; and Marco Cecchi de’Rossi is an investment committee member at Arpinge SpA and a board member at SIDAM. This podcast is produced by the European Liberal Forum in collaboration with Movimento Liberal Social and Fundacja Liberté!, with the financial support of the European Parliament. Neither the European Parliament nor the European Liberal Forum are responsible for the content or for any use that be made of.

What is modern Türkiye's relationship with its republican, secularist origins of Kemal Atatürk's republic from 1923? How is the relationship between Türkiye, the United States, and the West evolving? How is Türkiye positioning itself in the region in the aftermath of the Arab Spring? And is Europe's stance toward Türkiye hypocritical? Leszek Jazdzewski (Fundacja Liberte!) talks with Soli Özel, a Senior Fellow at Institut Montaigne and a member of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), who currently teaches at Koç University in Istanbul. He co-authored a book with Michael T. Rock titled "Elite Origins of Development and Democracy." Currently, he is working on another book with Michael T. Rock, tentatively entitled "Elite Origins of Democracy and Development in the USA." Tune in for their talk! Watch the video of the conversation: https://youtu.be/DDawzZISEbw This podcast is produced by the European Liberal Forum in collaboration with the Movimento Liberal Social and the Fundacja Liberté!, with the financial support of the European Parliament. Neither the European Parliament nor the European Liberal Forum are responsible for the content or for any use that be made of.