Is a pregnant nun about to crash Poland's election?

The Europeans | European news, politics and culture

Katy Lee and Dominic Kraemer

Society & Culture, News

4.8 • 274 Ratings

🗓️ 8 May 2025

⏱️ 73 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In theory, the government's guy looks set to win Poland's presidential election, making life a hell of a lot easier for Donald Tusk as he attempts to undo eight years of destructive authoritarian rule under the previous rightwing populists. But might a pregnant nun swoop in and change everything at the last minute? For an explanation of this metaphor (and yes, it is just a metaphor), listen in to this week's great interview with Poland's best political YouTubers, Dominika Sitnicka and Agata Szczęśniak. We're also digging into Sweden's plans to crack down on porn influencers, and celebrating the sweeter side of last week's mass blackouts in Spain and Portugal. Dominika and Agata are reporters at OKO.PRESS and co-hosts of its YouTube show, Program Polityczny (which can be watched with English auto-subtitles). Thanks for listening. If you enjoy our podcasts, we'd love it if you'd consider supporting our work. You can chip in to help us cover the weekly research and production of The Europeans at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/europeanspodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (many currencies are available), or gift a donation to a super fan here. We'd also love it if you could tell two friends about this podcast! This week's Inspiration Station recommendations: Terry Pratchett's 'Discworld' (especially the Ankh-Morpork City Watch series), and Carême. Bonus recommendations: 'The Butterfly Effect' and 'The Last Days of August'. We'll be at two events in Amsterdam for Europe Day on May 9! You can buy a ticket to EuropaNacht at Paradiso here; tickets to the earlier event, at SPUI25, are available here. With many thanks to our friends at the European Cultural Foundation, DutchCulture and De Kiesmannen. Other resources for this episode: 'In the Madrid power cuts, I saw patience and common sense – but we were woefully unprepared' - María Ramírez, The Guardian, April 29, 2025 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/apr/29/madrid-power-cuts-blackout-radio-internet 'In case of crisis or war' - Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB), November 2024 https://rib.msb.se/filer/pdf/30874.pdf 'The EU Commission's survival kits - fearmongering or necessary preparedness?' - Euronews, April 2, 2025 https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2025/04/02/the-eu-commissions-survival-kits-fearmongering-or-necessary-preparedness 00:00:46 Smoke, bureaucracy and extra outfits: get ready for May in Europe00:03:51 Good Week: Blackout behaviour00:22:22 Bad Week: OnlyFans influencers in Sweden00:38:20 Interview: Dominika Sitnicka and Agata Szczęśniak on Poland's upcoming presidential election01:03:14 The Inspiration Station: Terry Pratchett's 'Discworld' and Carême01:07:51 Happy Ending: An off-the-pitch win for Norway's women's team Producers: Morgan Childs and Katy Lee Mixing and mastering: Wojciech OleksiakMusic: Jim Barne YouTube | Bluesky | Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | Mastodon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | [email protected]

Transcript

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0:00.0	This podcast has been produced in cooperation with Uranet Plus, the leading radio network for EU news.
0:11.4	But this podcast would not be possible without the incredibly generous support of our amazing listeners who donate a little bit each month at patreon.com forward slash Europeans
0:22.8	podcast. Welcome to another episode of the Europeans, your favorite independent podcast about stuff that has been happening around this continent that we call home.
0:54.7	This is Katie in Paris. Dominic is away this week doing his actual job of singing opera.
1:00.4	So I have joining me this week, our wonderful producer in Warsaw. Vojchech. Hi, Vuech.
1:05.4	Hi, how are you doing? I'm good. And I believe you're fresh back from the long Polish holiday weekend, which I believe
1:12.4	you spent in beautiful Lithuania. How was it? Oh, it was just splendid. Yeah, I have to say,
1:17.7	it's a really nice tradition of us and our friends, because in Poland, May holiday, it's not only
1:22.4	the 1st of May, but it's the 1st of May. It's the International Workers Day that we celebrate in
1:26.8	Poland. On May 2nd, there is a national flag day.
1:30.2	Flag day. A very recent development. It has not been there when I was a kid. And then on May the 3rd, there is a 3 May Constitution Day, which celebrates first Polish Constitution. So we have a three days off. Then everybody is making the Po. So the bridge and takes a day off here and there and you have a week-long holiday in the middle of the otherwise not very holiday period of time. So that's really good. And Lithuania is awesome. Oh, lovely. Well, I hope you're feeling refreshed and ready for a new month because May feels like
2:01.3	it's going to be a big month here in Europe. There was this amazing post on Mastodon recently,
2:06.2	which I'm just going to read for you. It's a post by Joanna Holman. And she wrote,
2:10.1	with both Eurovision and the papal conclave happening in May, it's going to be a big month for
2:15.7	Europeans who love overly complex and dramatic
2:18.8	ways to select a winner that are run by international bureaucracies, include smoke for dramatic
2:25.3	effect, and feature excessively extra outfits.
2:29.5	Outfits. I'm equally excited for both, I have to say.
2:32.9	This is a pretty great summary of our interests here at the Europeans.
2:35.8	We love camp costumes. We love bureaucracy.
2:38.8	We're going to have a good month here.
2:40.3	Oh yeah, I think so.
	...

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