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The Europeans | European news, politics and culture

What the hell just happened in Romania (and at Eurovision)?

The Europeans | European news, politics and culture

Katy Lee and Dominic Kraemer

Society & Culture, News

4.8274 Ratings

🗓️ 22 May 2025

⏱️ 69 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Romania, Poland, Portugal... and of course, most importantly of all (?), Eurovision. It's been a huge week of voting across Europe! This week we're mostly diving into Romania's election drama with Codruţa Simina, a journalist with an extremely helpful specialism in online misinformation and disinformation. We're also tackling the controversy over Israel's continued participation in Eurovision, as well as the Pfizergate scandal: will we ever get to read the text messages Ursula von der Leyen sent to one of the world's most powerful pharmaceutical bosses?    Codruţa's excellent newsletter, Misreport, can be found here.   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 podcast was brought to you in cooperation with Euranet Plus, the leading radio network for EU news.   This week's Inspiration Station recommendations: The EU's personal carbon footprint calculator and 'Apeirogon' by Column McCann. You can find McCann's conversation with Bassam Aramin and Rami Elhanan, recorded in November 2023, here.   Other resources for this episode:    'Politics by WhatsApp? Even "Pfizergate" won’t end that' - Politico Europe, May 14, 2025   'The maths behind the public votes at Eurovision 2025' - RTE, May 18, 2025   'Wasted love?: broadcasting and fandom at a crossroads after Eurovision 2025' - Catherine Baker, May 18, 2025   'Why doesn't the EBU kick Israel out of Eurovision?' - Overthinking It, May 8, 2025   'Coal produces less than half of Poland’s power for first time' - Notes from Poland, May 13, 2025   00:00:46  An election bonanza hangover00:06:58  Bad Week: Pfizergate00:21:50  Good Week (?): Austrian Eurovision winner JJ00:45:12  Interview: Codruţa Simina on Romania's election drama01:02:51  The Inspiration Station: The EU's personal carbon footprint calculator, and 'Apeirogon' by Colum McCann01:07:00  Happy Ending: Is Poland finally kicking its coal habit?   Producers: Morgan Childs and Wojciech OleksiakMixing and mastering: Wojciech OleksiakMusic: Jim Barne and Mariska MartinaYouTube | 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 back to the Europeans, the clear winner when it comes to podcasts that keep you up to date with what's happening around the continent.

0:54.5

Am I allowed to say that?

0:55.6

I guess so. I mean, it's been a weekend of elections.

0:58.9

Exactly.

0:59.8

So, yeah, we're in the kind of winning and losing mood.

1:02.2

We're the winning podcast.

1:03.9

That is an opinion, not a fact. I would like to clarify that.

1:07.3

But it is the best European politics podcast, in my opinion.

1:12.1

And it's not just about politics, Katie. And it's not. It's about so much more. As we're going to discover in this episode,

1:17.0

this is Katie in Paris. How are you, Dominic in Amsterdam? I am fine. Yeah, it's been a while. I had a week

1:22.5

off. And in between, I did manage to see you in real life and almost break your foot. I'm sorry, how is your foot?

1:28.8

Yeah, I saw Dominic for about five minutes, and he dropped an electric bike battery on my foot.

1:33.7

And I don't know if you have an electric bike, but those batteries are heavy.

1:39.4

Amazingly, I managed to not break it or even bruise it.

1:42.3

So you're lucky. Our friendship is still intact, much like my foot.

1:45.8

I felt so bad.

1:46.9

I'm really sorry.

1:48.7

Anyway, along with Dominic, we've also briefly got producer Vojchev with us,

1:53.2

just popping in for a few minutes.

1:54.6

Hi, Vojek.

...

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