The European Republic

In this 18th episode of The European Republic, our host Nikodem Skrobisz speaks with Bruno Topiński, chairman of Astra Poland / Astra Europa Polska, about why the case for European federalism looks different when it is made from Warsaw rather than Berlin or Paris.

Topiński argues that he belongs to a generation that did not need an Erasmus year to feel European, and that Poland’s transformation over the past three decades is inseparable from its European integration. But he also pushes back on the idea that Poland is drifting away from Europe: support for EU membership, he says, has remained remarkably stable since the accession referendum. What Poland is contesting, in his view, is not integration itself but the terms on which it happens. National sovereignty for a mid-sized European state is an illusion in a world of competing hegemonies. Squeezed between Russian imperialism, an increasingly transactional United States, Chinese economic pressure and hostile theocratic regimes and rising Islamism, Poland cannot secure itself alone.

Topiński also explains why he co-founded with Astra Europa a new federalist organisation rather than joining Volt, why he believes federalism must stop being a partisan project of the political left, and how Astra Poland plans to force every Polish candidate to declare a position on European integration ahead of 2029. The episode closes on Polish party fragmentation, the weakness of pro-European civil society, and his argument that federalism will be won locally before it is won in any parliament.

Learn more about Astra Poland: https://astraeuropa.pl/

Learn more about Astra Europa: https://astraeuropa.eu/

Follow Bruno on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bruno_topinski/

Follow Bruno on Threads: https://www.threads.com/@bruno_topinski

Follow Bruno on X: https://x.com/Bruno_Topinski

In episode 17 of The European Republic, our host Nikodem Skrobisz speaks with Maciej Tadeusiak, Co-President of Volt Polska and member of Volt Europa’s European expansion team, who has helped set up seven new chapters across the continent. Maciej shares how he got into European politics, why he believes a pan-European party can become a machine for winning elections, and what it takes to build a political organization in a post-communist society where 99 percent of voters have never heard of you. The conversation explores the chicken-and-egg problem of political visibility, why Poles are far less conservative than their own politicians assume, and how Volt positions itself as pragmatic and evidence-based rather than left-wing. Maciej also lays out the road ahead: entering the 2027 Polish parliamentary elections, preparing for the 2029 European elections, and his fifty-year vision of a European Federation with pooled defense procurement, a unified research budget, and a Union that puts citizens before corporations.

Learn more about Volt in Poland: https://voltpolska.org/

In episode 16 of The European Republic, our host Nikodem Skrobisz talks with Geza, the Roman reenactor, austrian officer, living history artist, and musician known across Instagram and TikTok as The Age of Constantine. Wearing an authentically reconstructed tunic of late antiquity, Geza explains the difference between reenactment and living history, and why he consciously chooses to live as a Roman in the 21st century. The conversation dives deep into what he calls the Roman cultural matrix: a model of universalism, syncretism, and layered identities that once united the entire Mediterranean, and that Europe, he argues, is unconsciously rebuilding today. Geza shares his personal journey to convinced European, and tells moving stories of how the shared Roman heritage helps people from Tunisia to Taiwan find their place in Europe, offering a fresh perspective on integration and identity. From there, the discussion turns geopolitical: Europe as an emerging empire in the original Roman sense of imperium, America cast in the role of Carthage, and the question of how Europe can emancipate itself militarily and financially. Drawing on more than two decades as an officer in the Austrian armed forces, Geza outlines a concrete vision for a European army inspired by the French Foreign Legion, and reflects on virtue, competence, and purpose as the cultural foundations Europe must reclaim. Finally, he presents his most ambitious project yet: circumnavigating the entire 16,000-kilometer frontier of the Roman Empire on foot, on horseback, and by reconstructed ancient ship, as a living manifestation of the idea that the Euro-Mediterranean space belongs together.Follow Géza on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theageofconstantine/ Support Géza circumnavigating the Roman empire by historic means: https://www.gofundme.com/f/circumnavigating-the-roman-empire-historically

In this episode of The European Republic, our host Nikodem Skrobisz speaks with Ulyana Bakhtsizina, the newly elected Co-President of Volt Polska and organizer of We Are Europe in Poland. Ulyana shares her unusual path from physics into politics, and how her Polish-Belarusian background and proximity to Russian imperialism shaped her commitment to European federalism and democracy.

Together they explore the paradox at the heart of Polish politics: a country that has benefited enormously from EU membership, where around 80 percent of citizens say they support the Union, yet whose entire political landscape is drifting towards Euroscepticism and sovereignist rhetoric. Ulyana explains why Polish support for the EU is often described as wide but shallow, how Law and Justice spent a decade framing Brussels as a threat to national sovereignty, and why pro-European forces made a strategic mistake by neglecting smaller towns and eastern regions.

The conversation also covers the rural-urban divide visible in the last presidential election, the role of Russian propaganda and collective memory in fueling anti-EU sentiment, and how the concept of shared European sovereignty can answer Poland’s historically rooted fear of losing independence. Ulyana presents Volt Polska’s vision of a United States of Europe with a common army, common migration policy, and deeper integration, discusses whether Volt Polska will run in elections, and introduces the European Citizens’ Initiative to stop funding Russia’s war machine by phasing out EU imports from Russia.

Learn more about Volt Polska: https://voltpolska.orgSign the European Citizens’ Initiative: stopfundingrussianwar.com/sign.htmlUlyana on Instagram: moving.europe

Ulyana on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ulyana-juliana-bakhtsizina-718088263/

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In this episode of The European Republic, our host Nikodem Skrobisz talks with Pietro, Operations and Finance Lead of Astra Europa, the new pan-European federalist movement they both co-founded.

Pietro grew up between Italy, France and Ukraine, studied in the Netherlands and Switzerland, and works as a machine learning engineer. Together they discuss what actually makes Europe Europe, why the era of American protection is ending, and why Pietro sees Russia as Europe’s number one enemy. Pietro makes the case for a multi-speed path to federation: an inner circle of states forming a real federal core with a single constitution, a directly elected government and shared taxation, which other countries can join over time.

The conversation also covers why Pietro considers Switzerland the most instructive model for European unification, what went wrong with Ave Europa, how Astra Europa positions itself as the optimistic liberal force in the federalist camp, and why Europe needs federalist parties across the entire political spectrum, from left to right.

Check out Pietros European Onion Identity Generator: https://gorilskij.com/tools/european-onion

Astra Europa is currently recruiting. If you want to help build a united Europe, applications are open.

Learn more about Astra Europa here:

https://astraeuropa.eu/

What does it actually mean to be European — beyond the common market and the institutions? In the 13th Episode of the European Republic, our host Nikodem Skrobisz talks with Timi Celcer, a Slovenian entrepreneur and pan-European activist exploring that question through two very different ventures.

With Via Nova, Timi wants to spark a new European renaissance by reviving Latin — not as a dead classroom language, but as a living, shared medium that could give Europe a cultural identity to match its economic and political integration. With Grow Europe, he takes the pragmatic route, building a “growth infrastructure” to help startups and SMEs scale across the continent’s fragmented markets.

It’s a sweeping conversation that moves from a backpacking trip through Africa and Asia to philosophy, from the revival of Hebrew in Israel to the standardisation of Mandarin, and from idealism as a way of life to the very concrete bottlenecks facing European founders. Along the way: why Latin and not English, what a new European renaissance built on Athens, Jerusalem and Rome might look like, and a closing defence of idealism in a continent that has been pragmatic for too long.

Connect with Timi: linkedin.com/in/timi-celcer

Follow Via Nova on Instagram: instagram.com/vianova_europae

In this episode of The European Republic, our host Nikodem Skrobisz is joined by Marina Rrika — newly elected Non-Executive Board Member of Volt Europa and outgoing Co-President of Volt Albania, and the first person from a non-EU country to sit on Volt Europa's board.

We talk about her path from political science student to pan-European activist, and why she chose European politics over Albania's entrenched two-party system. Marina then takes us inside the month-long protests gripping Albania over the Narta Lagoon and Vjosa River, where Law 21/2024 on protected areas — changed without a parliamentary vote — has opened the door to construction in protected zones, the new Vlora airport, and a $1.4 billion coastal development deal linked to Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner. We talk about Prime Minister Edi Rama's response, the role of Volt's MEPs, and what EU pressure and the accession process can (deliver.

From there we widen the lens: how Volt can build trust and real structures in countries far from Brussels, why she believes in investing in people and small local chapters over chasing electoral wins everywhere at once, and where she lands on the federalism question — a deeper, united Europe versus first rebuilding trust in the European project itself. We close on her message to young people thinking about getting involved.

A conversation about democracy beyond borders — and about building your future where you are.

Follow Marina on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marinarrika/

On Volt Europas recent election:

https://volteuropa.org/news/new-volt-europa-board-elected

For Episode 11 of The European Republic, our host Nikodem Skrobisz talks with Giacomo Leombruni — winner of the 2025 Charlemagne Youth Prize with Forum Europaeum and founder and president of Last Call Europe, a platform built by and for young Europeans who want to shape the continent through debate.

Giacomo argues that more Europe doesn’t mean less Italy. Giacomo makes the case that a stronger, more sovereign Union — especially on defence and foreign policy — isn’t a threat to national identity but the only way European nations can hold their own at a table now dominated by the US, China, and Russia. Along the way he gives a candid, ground-level read on Italian euroskepticism, the youth crisis quietly driving so much of it, and why he insists young people aren’t the future of European politics but its present.

In this episode we get into:

* The argument for a sovereign Europe — and why being “27 countries alone” is no longer an option

* The real roots of Italian euroskepticism: Brexit’s long shadow, Brussels-blaming, anxieties over the euro, and the populist habit of inventing a single enemy

* Youth unemployment, brain drain, and Europe’s drift toward a “gerontocracy”

* How Last Call Europe was built from scratch — and the vision to grow it into a pan-European media platform

* Activist or journalist? The line between shaping opinion and reporting it

* Why the cure for polarization is more debate, not less — including with people who hate the EU

* The future of NATO, the transatlantic relationship, and the case for European strategic autonomy

Check out Last Call Europe: ⁠

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Nathan Doude van Troostwijk | Paneuropa and the Real Threat to Europe | The European Republic #10

What does it take to actually unite Europe — and who's standing in the way? In this episode our host Nikodem Skrobisz is joined by Nathan Doude van Troostwijk, a paneuropean activist who has fundraised for Volt France, organised with JEF, and now coordinates Paneuropa Union in Belgium. Coming from a Dutch-French-Swiss family and raised in Alsace, Nathan brings a realist case for European unity: every pro-European, pro-democratic movement is a good one, and the real fight is getting the citizens — not just the elites — on board.

We range widely: why Spinelli's federalism and Coudenhove-Kalergi's vision aren't really opposed, whether pro-Europeans should borrow populist communication tactics (and where that gets dangerous), the state of French politics heading into the presidential election, De Gaulle as both realist and myth, Christianity and the Enlightenment as Europe's shared cultural bedrock, immigration and integration beyond the headlines, Europe's brain drain, NATO reform, the "autocracy" networks targeting the continent — and Nathan's pitch for a broad pan-European assembly to bring the scattered movements into one common front.

Paneuropa Union Belgium:

⁠https://www.instagram.com/paneuropa.belgium⁠

Nathans Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/nathan_doude

Do we want Europe to be a player — or a playground for other powers? In the 9th episode of The European Republic, our host Nikodem Skrobisz speaks with political scientist Anton Shekhovtsov, Director of the Centre for Democratic Integrity in Vienna and visiting professor at the Central European University, one of the world's leading experts on political warfare and the weaponization of the European far right by autocratic regimes.

We discuss what political warfare actually is and why Russia's invasion of Ukraine was the result of its failure; why the West still lacks a realistic vision for dealing with Russia; how the Kremlin, China, and increasingly the United States exploit Europe's internal crises and populist movements to keep the continent weak; why a "Europe of multiple speeds" may be the path to a sovereign, geopolitically capable united Europe; and why rearmament needs democratic legitimacy — and a vision worth defending.

Anton writes about the European far right, Russia's war on Europe, and the vision of pan-Europa on his Substack "Towers of Europa" — highly recommended:

https://shekhovtsov.substack.com

Centre for Democratic Integrity: ⁠https://democratic-integrity.eu⁠

Anton's books include "Russia and the Western Far Right: Tango Noir" and "Russian Political Warfare."

The European Republic is the podcast for a united, democratic, federal Europe — interviews with pro-European and eurofederalist thinkers, activists, and politicians from across the continent.

Follow and support the podcast on Substack: ⁠https://nikodemskrobisz.substack.com/⁠

Host: Nikodem Skrobisz —⁠ https://nikodem-skrobisz.com⁠