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