Inside Europe 12 December 2024

“We took democracy for granted…. don’t make the same mistake!”: an interview with Klára Dobrev MEP, leader of Hungary’s Democratic Coalition Party and former Vice President of the European Union. Plus: the cost of climate change, Valencia after the floods and rebuilding quake-struck Hatay.

What can the U.S. learn from Hungary’s fight against authoritarianism? Hungarian MEP Klara Dobrev shares insights on how to resist authoritarianism in a special interview. Plus, we explore the cost of climate change, and examine recovery efforts in Valencia after last year's flooding and Turkey after devastating earthquakes in 2023.

Political earthquakes in Poland and the Netherlands, France’s crypto entrepreneur kidnappings, Russia doubles down on traditional gender roles, Ian Urbina feels the pull of the ocean, a haven for migrants near Rome’s central station, and the uplifting story of the Spanish Refugee National Football Team.

Released RFE journalist Alsu Kurmasheva on her colleague Farid Mehralizada, who is facing a 12 year prison sentence in Azerbaijan. We meet some of the young people on trial in Turkey following the recent crackdown on dissent, and take a look at the Franco-US relationship in the run up to…

On the show this week: Poland’s presidential elections reveal a country on a knife-edge, Exercise Hedgehog in Estonia and the Baltics’ hybrid warfare fears. Plus a Hungarian spy ring, Icelandic intrigue, Swiss bunkers, and Syrians returning home from Europe. A security special packed with stories from the frontlines of Europe’s…