Episode 2 - Cities, Suburbs, Towns and Villages

Available for over a year

Misha Glenny explores a number of political divides facing Europe and asks whether the continent is undergoing the same crises it went through in the 1930s. In this second episode, he investigates three countries where rural decline and urban growth have fuelled political change, First, Bulgaria, where the exodus from villages is driving a near existential problem in terms of national population. In Poland, he hears from the Mayor of Warsaw, who is hoping to ride Poland's growing young, urban and liberal voter base to the Presidency of the whole country. And in France, Misha digs into how both a historic vision of the countryside and the reality of France's declining "in between" places are playing into a new, far right vision for French politics. Producer: Artemis Irvine Executive Producer: Robert Nicholson A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4