Europe, we need to talk

Front National in France,  Golden Dawn in Greece, Jobbik in Hungary, Vlaams Belang, the Sweden Democrats, the True Finns, Lega Nord in Italy, FPÖ in Austria, Swiss People’s Party and the Danish People’s party,  Party for Freedom in the Netherlands, All for Latvia – why are populist and extremist parties so successful in Europe?

We asked this question the political scientist Andrej Zaslove and we wanted to know what we have to expect from this parties in the future.
Then, we bring into focus some examples from different countries: We take a look at “the prototype” of the new right-wing politician, who has his playground in the Netherlands. About Geert Wilders and his Party for Freedom, we talked with Suzette Bronkhorst from the Magenta Foundation.
With her song Nem tetszik a rendszer (I don’t like the system), Dorottya Karsay became the voice of the protest against the government of Prime Minister Victor Orban. We interviewed her about the situation in Hungary, where the right-wing extremist party “Jobbik” is one of the most successful political forces.
Here is the videoclip of her song Nem tetszik a rendszer (with English subtitles):

Repeatedly, Latvia gets in the focus, when the topic of racism in Eastern Europe comes up. How this comes and why the (Western) Europeans think that there is more racism and discrimination in Latvia then in an average European country, we wanted to know from Dace Dzenovska, a Latvian cultural anthropologist.

Finally: Listen to the first episode of our podcast

The topic is New Parties and new politics in Europe.

Heiða Helgadóttir is manager of “Besti Flokkurin” (The Best Party) which took over the town hall in Iceland’s capital after a satirical election campaign. The TV comedian Jon Gnarr is now mayor of Reykjvik – and Besti Flokkurinn has more plans for a “Bright Future”.

We talked to Andrzej Dominiczak – publicist and president of the Polish Humanist Association – about Ruch Palikota (Palikot’s Movement), which became the third strongest party in the polish elections of 2011. What is the story behind this movement, whose Leader Janusz Palikot brings a slaughtered pighead to the TV-Interview?

The slovenian Blaž Zgaga informs about the new party Pozitivna Slovenija (Positive Slovenia), led by Ljubljana’s mayor Zoran Jankovic. How did this party win the election – and why is the former conservative prime minister Janez Jansa also Slovenias next PM?

And last but not least we spoke with Kristjan Vassil about e-voting in Estonia.

In the middle of the biggest crisis since the pacification process after World War II., we came to the conclusion: Europe, we need to talk!

While the frontiers between the countries disappeared in the past decades and business, science or culture is no longer bonded on nationalities, the media is still mostly looking from a country-based perspective. We want to take the opportunity of the Internet to change this with our podcast.

What do the Greek people say about the German accusation of being lazy? Where is the difference between the protesting unemployed Spanish students and the demonstrations by people on the Romanian streets? What are the similarities between Orban in Hungary and Putin in Russia?

Once a month we plan to present a new episode – one topic, contributors from several countries. For example a poet from Lithuania, a lawyer from Portugal, a festival organizer from Croatia or a scientist from Scotland – we want to bring different people from different countries together and talk with them.

A European medium for an European perspective.