Inside Europe - 22 February 2024

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.

An International Women's Day Special, featuring the voices of Russian opposition figurehead Yulia Navalnaya, female NATO recruits as they take to the skies, and a French abortion activist celebrating a constitutional victory. Also in the show: pioneering business anchor Karen Tso, the only female watchmaker in Bosnia, Spanish football players and Estonia's Smoke Sauna Sisterhood.

NATO membership and the shift in the Swedish psyche, Russian fishing vessels in Norwegian ports, and refugee-led mental health interventions in Prague. Also: quantifying extremism in Germany's AfD, enshrining abortion in the French constitution, dealing with the aftermath of ISIS terror in Turkey and bringing refugee children and their peers together through music.