EU Scream

Tony Blair shares his two-pronged formula for taking on nationalist populists — and winning. He says Britain is making a "profound historical mistake” by capitulating to the Brexiteers. But he has a stern message for Europe too: do more to stand up for values, not just narrow national interests. The European Union still needs a “strong sense of itself,” Blair suggests. We begin the show with another warning against complacency. Andrew Stroehlein is European media director for Human Rights Watch, a group investigating and reporting abuses in all corners of the world. In May's elections to the European Parliament, some far-right and extremist parties failed to do as well as expected. But Stroehlein says Europeans must remain alert to the ways these parties are seeking to erode rights and freedoms across the bloc. Support the show

We speak with two Muslim millennials raising their voices against discrimination and religious misconceptions. Nas is a celebrity video blogger with 13 million followers. He's also a Palestinian-Israeli educated at Harvard who defies the far-right’s stereotypes about young Arab men. He says governments should force integration — otherwise the kinds of Islamophobia and anti-Semitism that plague parts of Europe are inevitable. Mehreen Khan is a correspondent for the Financial Times in Brussels. Not only is she a rare Brexiteer among the EU press corps, she’s also a British Muslim of Pakistani descent who wears a headscarf. That makes her an unusual sight at European Union headquarters where the lack of diversity is at odds with the multicultural reality of many parts of the continent. We get her observations on the ways stereotypes about the East persist and about the ways Europe is failing to protect, and connect with, its 25 million Muslim inhabitants. I first asked why her avatar — that’s the picture she uses to identify herself on Twitter — looks a lot like a burka with a maniacal grin. Visit our website for episode art and transcripts, and for more on EU Scream. “Beethoven Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125” by Papalin is licensed under CC by 3.0. “Airside No. 9” is played by Lara Natale.Support the show

Estonia, a tiny Baltic state, was hit by a giant shockwave in March when a political party promoting white supremacist views won nearly 18 percent of the vote in a general election. A second shockwave hit when Jüri Ratas, the leader of the liberal-left Centre Party, invited the party, called EKRE, to form a coalition government. The powerful interior and finance ministries went to two EKRE leaders, Mart Helme and son Martin Helme; the family double act excels in racism, sexism and homophobia, and their followers spread the alt-right conspiracy theory that immigrant invaders are replacing so-called true Europeans. Last month, fascism defender Jaak Madison became the first EKRE representative to win a seat at the European Parliament. EKRE now has a strong role representing Estonia on the international stage where it threatens the country's carefully nurtured image as an advanced and open society that teems with startups and digital services. With a rather different Estonia emerging — an Estonia where the kind of accommodation that allowed EKRE into government has echoes with the rise of fascism in the 1930s — we travel to the capital Tallinn to hear from people who have taken a stand. Ahto Lobjakas is a former Brussels correspondent whose outspoken commentary at home frequently made him a government opponent. He is now more like an enemy of the state amid creeping censorship and threats to his personal safety. A former president of the country, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, is among those who have come to Lobjakas’ defence. We also talk to two leaders of anti-EKRE protest movements. Kristi Roost helped start the online campaign Kõigi Eesti this year with the goal of preserving Estonia as a respectful and inclusive country. A core group, including Silver Tambur, the co-founder of online magazine Estonian World, has grown to 27,000 members. Click here for Kõigi Eesti's video. Maris Hellrand, a civil society activist and journalist, takes a more direct approach by leading street protests outside Estonia’s seat of government, Stenbock House. She also has helped turn the tables on EKRE by promoting a lapel pin displaying “pink spittle,” which is one of EKRE’s epithets for their opponents. Neither movement was able to stop EKRE from joining the government or the European Parliament. But they are run by determined and imaginative campaigners. To start the show, we check in with Cas Mudde, a Dutch political scientist renowned for his work on populism and the radical right. Mudde offers some general thoughts on EKRE and on whether Moscow may have had a role in its rise, as was the case for some other far-right movements in Europe. Visit our website for episode art and more on EU Scream. “Beethoven Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125” by Papalin is licensed under CC by 3.0. “Airside No. 9” is played by Lara Natale.Support the show

You may have heard how large numbers of European Union citizens in Britain could not exercise their right to vote in the bloc’s elections. They were disenfranchised by British ineptitude and perhaps outright discrimination. But look beyond that group and there are 17.5 million more EU residents of voting age formally excluded because they lack a European passport. A significant number of them are in Berlin, where civil society groups are fed up that so many of the city’s residents are blocked from the ballot. This week we’re in the German capital to talk about these residents without voting rights with Séverine Lenglet of Citizens For Europe. We also cast a make-believe ballot in a symbolic EU election with James Rosalind of Demokratie in Der Mitte. We begin the show with Lucy Alice Thomas, the executive director of Give Something Back to Berlin, a group that brings together migrants, locals and refugees. Lucy spoke with us at Refugio, a venue where many old and new Berliners live and work together. Please visit our website for episode art and more EU Scream. “Beethoven Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125” by Papalin is licensed under CC by 3.0. “Airside No. 9” is played by Lara Natale.Support the show

Yanis Varoufakis is the leftist former Greek finance minister who tried and failed to end austerity. Like him or loathe him, Varoufakis is worth a look ahead of EU elections where centrists are struggling to compete with the far right’s clear and simple, if deceptive, messages. After a brief and tumultuous term in office, Varoufakis created the Democracy in Europe Movement, DiEM25. Varoufakis wants DiEM25 to win seats in the European Parliament to save the continent from what he sees as twin enemies: the Brussels establishment and far right ultra-nationalists. Critics point out that by creating his own movement, Varoufakis may further splinter the European left when it needs to be united against the far right, which appears in the ascendant. Varoufakis has found allies among a motley but enthusiastic crew: cerebral artists and musicians like Brian Eno; philosophers and intellectuals who name-drop Heidegger and Arendt at political rallies; and activists like Pamela Anderson, the ex-Playboy model and Baywatch star. We go on the trail of Varoufakis and his movement with Eleni Varvitsioti, the Greek journalist who has covered her country’s crises in masterful detail for Skai TV and the newspaper Kathimerini. Please visit our website for episode art and more EU Scream. “Beethoven Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125” by Papalin is licensed under CC by 3.0. “Airside No. 9” is played by Lara Natale.Support the show

Is the contest to become the next president of the European Commission just make-believe democracy? We look for answers in the Dutch city of Maastricht, where candidates held their first official debate on April 29th. Christine Neuhold, the professor of EU Democratic Governance at Maastricht University, which helped organise the event, talks about what was real, and surreal, about the debate. We also hear from another EU expert who was in the audience: Pelle Christy Geertsen of Brussels consultancy Euraffex. Geertsen, who spoke with EU Scream in November about citizen democracy, shares his thoughts on an evening spent on Planet Europe. Please visit our website for episode art and more about EU Scream. “Beethoven Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125” by Papalin is licensed under CC by 3.0. “Airside No. 9” is played by Lara Natale.Support the show

This week we’re in conversation with Carl Dolan, the outgoing director at the EU office for anti-corruption organisation Transparency International. He explores links between populism and corruption at the European Parliament and in Hungary.We also meet civil society activist Julia Krzyszkowska. She and data geek Xavier Dutoit struggled — and succeeded — in creating an online tool called MEP Watch. Their goal is helping campaign groups track voting by members of the European Parliament.Please visit our website for episode art and more about EU Scream. “Beethoven Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125” by Papalin is licensed under CC by 3.0. “Airside No. 9” is played by Lara Natale.Support the show

Margrethe Vestager is the European Union antitrust enforcer who's earned global recognition for pushing Silicon Valley giants like Apple, Google and Facebook to treat consumers and competitors fairly.Last month she put herself in the running to succeed Jean-Claude Juncker as president of the European Commission. That makes her a Spitzenkandidat, a German word that is EU jargon for being one of the lead candidates for Mr. Juncker’s job. This conversation with Vestager is from an edited recording of a live event that was held on April 2 and organised by Res Publica Europa, a group of EU officials venturing beyond their civil service day jobs to defend the EU project. Follow Res Publica Europe on Twitter. The discussion was a chance to push Vestager for her stance on topics that are cornerstones of a progressive agenda such as climate protection, the rise of far-right nationalism, the power of social media platforms and tax justice. It also was an opportunity to hear about some of her other preferences. The Beatles versus The Rolling Stones, for starters. Please visit our website for episode art and for more about EU Scream. “Beethoven Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125” by Papalin is licensed under CC by 3.0. “Airside No. 9” is played by Lara Natale.Support the show

Historian Heidi Tworek talks about her book, News From Germany, which deals with the malign influence campaigns that foretold Nazism. It’s a fascinating look at the battle to control news and information in an era of immense turmoil spanning the First World War, the Weimar Republic, and the Third Reich. One of Tworek’s core arguments is that the immense power of British, French, American and German news agencies is comparable with the power now wielded by Google Facebook and Twitter. Tworek also says mistakes made amid hysteria over information warfare in the first half of the 20th century hold valuable lessons for safeguarding democracy in the first half of the 21st. First, Tom and James discuss what Facebook, Google and Twitter say they are doing to curb interference in the run up to elections for a new European Parliament. Read the platforms’ self-assessments here. Please visit our website for episode art and for more about EU Scream. Richard Wagner’s “Liebestod” from Tristan und Isolde played by Ilaria Baldaccini is public domain. “Beethoven Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125” by Papalin is licensed under CC by 3.0. “Airside No. 9” is played by Lara Natale.Support the show

This episode of EU Scream aired a couple of weeks ago amid expectations Europe’s conservatives would expel Prime Minister Viktor Orbán of Hungary and his Fidesz party for violating the rule of law and insulting EU leaders.Last week the European People’s Party, as the conservatives are known, agreed a mere suspension. Rather than showing contrition, Orbán immediately resumed his belligerent stance against migrants and the European Commission. Listen to this update to hear Orbán indulging in post-truth politicking so fanciful that journalists burst out laughing. It’s against this background that we are revisiting stories and analysis from three people smeared by Orban and Fidesz: the human rights activist Márta Pardavi; the European Parliamentarian Judith Sargentini; and the political scientist Péter Krekó.The smears they describe are part of an atmosphere of political and psychological warfare in Hungary and could serve as a model for other strong men and autocrats in Europe. Pardavi is co-chair of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, a human rights group based in Budapest and among the most prominent targets of Orbán’s ire. Last year Pardavi was honoured for her courage and work by Human Rights First in New York. Krekó is a social psychologist and political scientist and executive director of Political Capital, a research institute and consultancy in Budapest. He’s the author of a book on the Hungarian far right and another on fake news and conspiracy theories. Krekó slams the European Commission for going too easy on Budapest for too long. Sargentini is a member of the European Parliament from the Netherlands who wrote a damning report last year on the erosion of democracy in Hungary. The report made Sargentini one of the prime foreign targets for Budapest’s smear campaigns. She says she can no longer visit Hungary. “Beethoven Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125” by Papalin is licensed under CC by 3.0. "Hungarian Rhapsody no. 2, S. 244-2” by Franz Liszt and played by Simone Renzi is licensed under CC by 3.0. “Airside No. 9” is played by Lara Natale.Support the show