Babiš is back

It’s been a busy week for European politics, European protests, and European wallabies. In the midst of the madness, we caught up with Kateřina Šafaříková of Czech news outlet Seznam Zprávy, who filled us in on the Czech Republic’s recent parliamentary elections. Is the probable next Prime Minister, Andrej Babiš, likely to be an Orbán-esque thorn in the EU’s side, or does he just kinda wanna text with Macron? Kateřina shares her thoughts. We also catch up on the protests that Georgia’s democratic opposition has been staging against the country’s government in Tbilisi and a grassroots victory in Lithuania.

If you’re moved to learn more about what’s going on in Georgia, check out our interview with Anna Gvarishvili in the episode “Is this the end of Georgia’s European dream?” You can also follow some of the initiatives and journalists Wojciech recommends:

• Project 64 https://x.com/64project_
• George Melashivili https://x.com/geomel_ge
• Marika Mikiashvili https://x.com/Mikiashvili_M
• Anna Gvarishvili https://x.com/AnnaGvarishvili

You can discover more of Kateřina Šafaříková’s work over here or follow her on Instagram here.

This week's Inspiration Station recommendations are the documentary Pianoforte and the book Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie, courtesy of Patreon member Pia. 

Brace yourselves if you decide you do indeed want to hear the now former Lithuanian minister for culture singing on an episode of the Voice.

This podcast was brought to you in cooperation with Euranet Plus, the leading radio network for EU news. But it’s contributions from listeners that truly make it all possible—we could not continue to make the show without you! If you like what we do, you can chip in to help us cover our production costs at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/europeanspodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (in many different currencies), or you can gift a donation to a superfan. We'd also love it if you could tell two friends about this podcast. We think two feels like a reasonable number.

00:00:47 Bentornato!
00:04:08 Good Week: Lithuania’s cultural sector
00:15:15 Bad Week: Georgian democratic opposition 
00:28:11 Interview: Journalist Kateřina Šafaříková on last week’s Czech elections
00:47:34 The Inspiration Station: The documentary Pianoforte and the book Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie
00:52:40 Happy Ending: Massive Der Spiegel wallaby scoop!

Producers: Morgan Childs and Wojciech Oleksiak
Mixing and mastering: Wojciech Oleksiak