Who really runs Europe?

Who really runs Europe?

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Who really runs Europe? episodes

  • Football never stopped doing business with Russia
    Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Western governments tried to stop business as usual with Russia. In football, the country was banned from major international competitions. But the money flows in football haven’t stopped. Journalist Krijn Schramade found that European clubs continue to do millions of euros worth of business with Russian clubs.
    25 min
  • The fight over Europe’s promise to save forests

    A landmark EU law was meant to ensure that products such as coffee, soy, and timber do not fuel deforestation globally. However, the legislation has been watered down and delayed twice – with Brussels blaming IT issues. Journalist Hans Wetzels found that the story went far beyond technical failures.


     

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    https://www.ftm.eu/articles/eu-says-it-problems-delayed-deforestation-law-critics-blame-lobbying


     

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    22 min
  • The EU’s hydrogen dream in Namibia is falling apart
    Namibia was supposed to become one of the countries powering Europe’s climate goals: a multibillion-dollar EU-funded project to develop green hydrogen promised jobs and economic growth. But when journalist Olivier van Beemen travelled to Namibia, he found a very different reality.
    26 min
  • Summer series | Hungary’s hotline to the Kremlin
    Viktor Orbán has drawn Hungary increasingly close to Russia. But what has been happening behind closed doors between the Hungarian government and Moscow?
    Investigative network VSquare obtained recordings and transcripts of calls between Hungary’s foreign minister and senior Russian officials, offering a rare glimpse into Hungary-Russia relations and the conversations taking place away from public view.
    In the final episode of Follow the Money’s summer podcast series, Emma du Chatinier and Lise Witteman speak with VSquare co-founder and investigative journalist Anna Gielewska. She explains how journalists across Central Europe began investigating the spread of Orbán’s political model and why Russian influence kept appearing in their reporting.
    It’s a story that sounds like a “spy thriller”, but actually played out across Central Europe.
    23 min
  • Summer series | Exposing a pro-Russian disinformation network
    Disinformation campaigns are no longer built around a single false claim or suspicious account. Hundreds of profiles can push the same message simultaneously, creating the illusion of widespread public support. But how can journalists tell the difference between a genuine political movement and a coordinated influence operation?
    Romanian investigative newsroom Context.ro has built its own software to uncover such networks. During Moldova’s 2025 elections – a crucial vote that pitted closer ties with Europe against Russian influence – its journalists identified a massive pro-Moscow propaganda drive.
    Emma and Lise speak to investigative journalist Attila Biro, co-founder of Context.ro. He explains how the outlet looked beyond individual posts to map the wider infrastructure – from TikTok and Telegram to an anonymously distributed newspaper and crypto payments.
    Biro also discusses how journalists distinguish content that performs well organically from popularity that has been artificially manufactured – and why that matters more than ever: “We need to stop seeing this simply as disinformation and start treating it as a matter of defence. Our digital space is under attack, and we need to defend it.”
    26 min
  • Summer series | Investigating the killing of journalists in Gaza
    Hundreds of Palestinian journalists have been killed in Gaza – making it the deadliest conflict for reporters in decades. Were their deaths an inevitable consequence of Israel’s war, or has the media been deliberately targeted?
    As part of the Gaza Project, dozens of journalists from around the world joined forces to investigate the killings.
    Emma and Lise speak to Frederik Obermaier, co-founder of the Munich-based German investigative newsroom Paper Trail Media, who was involved in the reporting. He also led a follow-up investigation into allegations that an Israeli soldier of German origin shot unarmed civilians in Gaza.
    Obermaier discusses the resistance he faced reporting on these issues in Germany, where coverage of Israel and Palestine is particularly sensitive.
    “The Holocaust puts a certain obligation on Germany and also on the German population. Whenever we see allegations of war crimes, I think it's our duty as journalists to investigate.”
    26 min
  • Summer series | From a fish to the fall of Lithuania’s PM
    Last year, Lithuanian journalist Šarūnas Černiauskas began investigating his prime minister’s finances. What started as a seemingly small story soon grew into a series of scandals. The government turned against Černiauskas and his colleagues – but they persevered: their reporting ultimately helped force the prime minister to step down.
    And yet, that wasn’t the end of the story.
    Emma and Lise speak to Černiauskas about the corruption uncovered around EU funds, and how frighteningly quickly a democracy can begin to backslide: “Assaults on democracy, they're going to happen. They are happening now. And solidarity is the only antidote."
    28 min
  • Summer series | Profits, not politics, behind AI hate boom
    Persecution, corruption, and even murder. In this summer series, Emma du Chatinier and Lise Witteman unpack recent groundbreaking stories by fellow journalists from across Europe. How did their investigations impact society? And what does their journalism reveal about the state of European democracy?
    In this episode: Journalist Niamh McIntyre went deep into the world of hateful content on social media, investigating the people posting so-called AI slop. She was shocked: many of the creators were not at all what you might expect. And some weren’t even aware that the videos they were profiting from were racist or Islamophobic.
    Emma and Lise speak to Niamh about the rise of AI-generated misinformation, the financial incentives driving its creation, and how Meta is to blame. “These content creators aren’t an anomaly. They’re producing the internet that Big Tech companies and AI companies want.”
    27 min
  • Summer series | They killed the journalist, but not the story
    Persecution, corruption, and even murder. In this summer series, Emma du Chatinier and Lise Witteman unpack recent groundbreaking stories by fellow journalists from across Europe. How did their investigations impact society? And what does their journalism reveal about the state of European democracy?
    In this episode: Slovak investigative journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée – archeologist Martina Kušnírová – were murdered in their home in 2018. Kuciak was investigating high-level corruption, including alleged connections to people around Prime Minister Robert Fico. After his death, journalists across Slovakia picked up the work Kuciak had been unable to finish. Their revelations, together with mass protests, even brought down the government.
    Emma and Lise speak with Lukáš Diko, editor-in-chief of the Investigative Center of Ján Kuciak, about what the murder meant for Slovakia, and for the journalists who continued to follow Kuciak’s trail. “We never could have imagined that one of us could have been killed because of journalistic work.”
    24 min
  • The man who sold Brussels the hydrogen dream
    Europe set sky-high targets for green hydrogen. Today, it’s nowhere near meeting them. Journalist Jesse Pinster traced Brussels’ big hydrogen bet back to one professor: Ad van Wijk. How did his vision become that of Europe?
    24 min

About Who really runs Europe?

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Who really runs Europe? In this podcast, we speak to Follow the Money journalists and other expert voices about the power they hold to account: from corrupt politicians and shady lobbyists to…