Inside Europe 2 May 2024

The many political lives of Slovakia’s Robert Fico, Czechia plots its own course, a devastating week for Ukraine, and an AfD check. Also: Georgia’s Foreign Agents Law, Catalonian election hangover, Turkish crime crackdown and a fashionable reimagining of the Balkans route.

It’s Eurovision Finals week so we’ve gone all out on a Euro-Culture special! Alongside the hottest-takes from Malmo 2024, we’ll be bringing you the best of Liveurope in Brussels, and the arrival of the Olympic torch in Marseille. Enjoy… because this is about as lycra-packed as Inside Europe is ever likely to get! Plus: DW’s Don’t Drink the Milk podcast explores the backstory of the bagel

The Gaza flotilla activists stranded in Turkey, why Scotland's Humza Yousaf quit while Spain's Pedro Sanchez stays and media activists call for the right to information. Also: EU election season is now underway, why EU enlargement states have veered to the far right, the end for Slovakia's public broadcaster, Venice's pay-to-get-in rule and Denmark cashes in on Sweden’s Eurovision limelight.

Fifty years after Portugal's Carnation Rvolution, we journey through the mutinous streets of Lisbon, plus the EU's Green Deal is in trouble: can it be saved? We also focus on the topic of land — Danish land that’s been deliberately flooded, Bulgarian land deliberately left un-tilled and Italian land bought up by the mafia. Finally, why Slovakia's brown bears have become a big wedge issue.

Crunch-time as the EU seeks a coordinated response to the Middle East conflicts, Turkey cracks down on trade with Israel, and after NatCon Brussels was shut down, we preview CPAC in Hungary. Also: Copenhagen’s historic Stock Exchange burns down, what the world can learn from Ukraine's DIIA app, why Icelanders disapprove of their new PM and we head to the International Festival of the Ocarina.

The EU’s Asylum and Migration Pact is passed, Germany defends itself at the ICJ (extended interview here: http://dw.com/p/4efgf), Slovakia gets a new president, plus a sporting summit and a foretaste of Olympic tensions. Also on the show: unexpected bids for power shake things up in both Hungary and Croatia, and the pick of the Bologna Children’s Book Fair. ?maca=en-podcast_inside-europe-949-xml-mrss

The electoral tide turns on Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, taking stock of NATO at 75, the war in Gaza casts a cloud over the Eurovision Song Contest and why Czechs spent Wednesday taking it easy. Also: a special focus on farmers and mental health.

Will Putin use the Moscow attack to further tighten his grip? Could a pro-western candidate win Slovakia's presidential election? And the refugee crisis in Europe that no one is talking about. Also: A secret recording hints at more corruption in Hungary's government, is it 'Time's up' for Spain's late-night bar culture? and 100-year-old Dutch prisons are remodeled for the 21st century.

Ukrainian drones strike Russian oil refineries, Ireland’s Taoiseach Leo Varadkar resigns, and the World Happiness Index reveals the opposite for young people in Western Europe. Also: an environment-themed second half featuring: a vision for a post fossil-fuel Ukraine, hydro plans threaten Scotland’s Loch Ness, Montpellier’s free public transport and the UK Climate Choir movement strikes a chord.

The first (but not last!) elections special of this elections bumper-year, covering the rise of Portugal’s far-right Chega party. The Russian presidential elections and what’s NOT on the ballot. The battle for Belgrade is on again and how Erdogan hopes to retake Istanbul. All that, plus the alarming incidence of food poverty in the UK and Olympic preparations in Paris’ urban melting-pot.