In this episode of La Loupe, Xavier Yvon analyzes Poland’s ambitions with Clément Daniez and Paul Véronique, from the World service of L’Express.
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The team: Xavier Yvon (presentation), Charlotte Baris (writing), Mathias Penguilly (editing), Jules Krot (directing) and Marion Galard (work-study).
Credits: Arte, Euronews, France 24, France Culture, TV5 Monde
Music and dressing: Emmanuel Herschon/Studio Torrent
Picture credits: Artur Widak/NurPhoto via AFP
Logo: Anne-Laure Chapelain/Benjamin Chazal
How to listen to a podcast? Follow the leader.
Xavier Yvon: For this beginning of the episode, I’m going to ask you to be very attentive because we’re going to start with a small step aside. If you have read the title of this podcast, you already know that today we are going to talk about Poland. But before that, I wanted you to listen to an excerpt from a news channel that I put aside a few days ago:
Extract from France 24 : “We know that President Zelensky would like to go very quickly, he would like Ukraine to be able to join the European Union by 2024 and of course when Charles Michel welcomed him earlier by saying ‘welcome home, welcome to the European Union’ this has not fallen on deaf ears.”
Xavier Yvon : I warned you, the relationship with Poland is not immediately obvious. I recorded this excerpt because it made me think of an old episode of La Loupe that I had completely forgotten… With Corentin Pennarcarear, from the World service of L’Express, and Isabelle Ory, correspondent in Brussels, we had tried to imagine the European Union of 2050. They had explained to us in particular that the challenge now consisted of expanding towards the east, with many candidate countries. In particular Ukraine, for which things are progressing.
I went back to listen to this episode, which dates from the spring of 2022. And it reminded me that Isabelle Ory had also told us this:
Isabelle Ory : “The conflict in Ukraine puts the nations of the former Soviet bloc in the spotlight. Obviously, because they are physically on the front line in the conflict. What we are saying here in Brussels is that we listen to these countries more than before. You still have to remember where these eastern countries come from. They were treated somewhat like second-class countries for a very long time by the countries of Western Europe. Today, 18 years after their entry into the European Union, they truly occupy their place as member states of the European Union.”
Xavier Yvon : Thanks to this rediscovered episode, I found the perfect hook for our podcast of the day. Because today, we are interested in a country which perfectly illustrates this redirection towards the East of the European Union, Poland therefore… It must be said that Warsaw does not hide its ambition: to become a military power capable of competing with the Germany and France, to the point of soon having seven times more tanks than our army. The war in Ukraine is further accelerating this process, and the country could in the future take on a much more important place in the European Union and throughout the continent.
For further
PODCAST. What could the European Union look like in 2050?
Did you forget about Poland? She is gaining momentum, by Marion Van Renterghem
Speaker of Ukrainian Parliament: “Our country can become the America of the 21st century”
War in Ukraine: “A ceasefire would only lead the two parties to reorganize”