Democratic salami and boiling frogs

Between Elon Musk's meddling and Romania's election rollercoaster, the state of Europe's democracies feels a little scary at the start of 2025. This week we talk to Tom Theuns, author of a new book about Europe's failure to stop the slow slide towards autocracy so far and what we can do to fix it. 

 Tom is a senior assistant professor of political theory and European politics at Leiden University. You can find out all about his book, 'Protecting Democracy in Europe', here, and follow him on Bluesky here. 

We're also crowdfunding our new series, 'Who Does It Best?', which will delve into the most imaginative policies around Europe. We're 96% of the way there! You can find out all about our plans for the series, and help us start making it, at https://4fund.com/z/europeanspodcast. 

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Inspiration Station recommendations:

• 'My Favourite Cake'

• 'La Chimera'

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Other resources for this episode:

• Double Dutch on Instagram and TikTok 

• Ada Colau's amazing Instagram post

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Producer

Katy Lee and Wojciech Oleksiak

Mixing and mastering

Wojciech Oleksiak

Music

Jim Barne and Mariska Martina

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