Skip to content
Sign in
Artwork for Brussels Playbook Podcast
NewsNews CommentaryPolitics

Brussels Playbook Podcast

POLITICO

#22 in News this week

POLITICO’s daily audio briefing on what’s moving Brussels — and why it matters.

The Brussels Playbook Podcast is the audio extension of the Brussels Playbook newsletter. Hosted by POLITICO's chief EU correspondent, Zoya Sheftalovich, the podcast runs Monday through Thursday, offering a clear, reporting-driven guide to EU politics in under 15 minutes. It’s a perfect companion for your morning coffee.

Each episode takes listeners inside the decisions, power shifts and debates shaping the day in Brussels — and explains how they connect to national capitals across Europe.

Clear, conversational and shaped by reporting from the heart of the EU, the Brussels Playbook Podcast brings context to EU politics as your day begins.

On Fridays, the same feed features a longer episode that goes deeper into the week’s biggest themes, offering context and analysis beyond the daily news cycle — with Sarah Wheaton behind the mic. 


Play
Open in
  • 640 episodes
  • daily
  • Avg 30 min
  • English

Episodes 640

NewestOldestLongest
All20Unplayed20In progress0Played0
Counted on this page — what you have heard stays on this device, so it is not something the list can be paged by.
  • September 9 · 16 min

    The EU’s Israel dilemma

    The EU is struggling to withstand the allure of Israel’s tech and missile defense prowess.

  • September 7 · 20 min

    Germany's far-right bombshell

    After a sweeping victory in the regional elections in Saxony-Anhalt, Ulrich Siegmund's Alternative for Germany (AfD) could be in a position to govern the state — putting a far-right party in power in part of Germany for the first time since World War II. 

  • September 4 · 26 min

    What do Spain's migrant crisis and Germany's knife-edge election mean for Europe?

    The Spanish exclave of Ceuta on the North African coast is struggling to deal with a surge of unauthorized migrants. Over 70,000 arrived in a mass crossing from Morocco at the end of July, and although the numbers have fallen since then, police and the authorities are struggling with outbreaks of violence and criminality. Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has faced protests in cities across the country, and the crisis poses a challenge for the European Union’s borders. Host Anne McElvoy talks to Tim Röhn, Senior Editor of the Axel Springer Global Reporters Network, who has reported extensively from Ceuta for POLITICO. Also on the podcast, could the far-right be on the verge of an electoral breakthrough in Germany? This weekend’s election in the Eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt could result in the Alternative for Germany forming a government, the first time a far-right party has tasted power since the Second World War. Anne has been on the road in the state, writing about how two chancellors, Merz and Merkel, have lost the old East. She's joined by Josef Forster, BILD’s politics editor, on what might follow for Germany's leadership. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  • August 28 · 34 min

    Could Orbán lead Hungary again?

    For 16 years, Viktor Orbán exerted an iron grip on Hungarian politics and society. Now it’s being dismantled. Has Hungary finally turned a page on the Orbán era, or could he make one final return? It’s only a few days before Péter Magyar’s government, which succeeded Orbán, learns whether his anti-corruption reforms have done enough to persuade the European Commission to release €10.4 billion of frozen funds to help the country recover after the Covid pandemic. The money was withheld over breaches of EU law under Orbán, who suffered a landslide defeat at the polls in April. Host Anne McElvoy talks to János Bóka, who now leads Orbán’s Fidesz party from the opposition benches in the Hungarian Parliament. He was minister for European affairs in the previous government and is seen as a relatively moderate voice tasked with rebuilding a party reeling from defeat. Does he want to cast off an ousted strongman’s shadow – might Orban still be seeking to find a way back? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Showing 1–20 of 640 episodes