Brussels insists it only acts where member states allow it. MCC Brussel's Deputy Research Director Philip Siegert shows that is simply untrue. h exists down with John O'Brien to talk about his latest report: Empire of Law: Pushing supranationalism beyond democratic legitimacy. For decades, EU institutions have quietly rewritten their own powers; through courts, crises, delegated acts and clever legal gymnastics, creating a system where the centre expands and national democracy s...

This week, MCC Brussels’ John O’Brien sits down with Leonardo Orlando. He is an evolutionary psychologist, co-author of Sex, Science and Censure, and one of the harshest critics of gender ideology in Europe. Orlando makes a simple but devastating point: you can’t understand society if you pretend biology stops at the neck. Yet universities have built entire “gender” departments on the denial of basic human nature. The result? A flat-earth worldview masquerading as scholarship, and an a...

This week, Jacob Reynolds is joined by Pieter Cleppe and Anthony Gilland to review 2025 – the populist surge, the elite fightback on speech and elections, and Europe’s growing weakness from Washington to Ukraine. Populists surge – and the public stops whispering The conversation opens on the mood-shift of 2025: farmer protests across Europe, citizens stepping in where the state won’t (including border pressure), and parents scrutinising what schools are teaching. They run through the elector...

This week, Jacob Reynolds is joined by Philipp Siegert, Deputy Research Director at MCC Brussels, to unpack the EU’s migration pact blow-up, a College of Europe fraud probe, and the vandalism of Brussels’ Grand Place nativity scene. Pay up or take migrants The Commission sells the Pact on Migration and Asylum as “solidarity” – but the rollout is exposing open fractures across Europe. The Council is discussing relocation quotas (around 21,000) and a “solidarity contribution” of €20,000 ...

Denmark isn’t “closed.” It’s controlled. In this Deep Dive, MCC Brussels’ John O’Brien sits down with Danish MEP Anders Vistisen from the Danish People's Party, to dissect the one European immigration model that actually works. Denmark’s approach is blunt, unapologetic, and stubbornly democratic: strict external controls, serious integration demands, honest statistics, and politicians who answer to voters. For decades, Danish governments—left and right—ignored the polite illusions pu...

This week, Jacob Reynolds is joined by Agnieszka Kolek and Richard Schenk to break down Brussels’ assault on X, Washington’s blunt verdict on Europe’s decline, and the Commission’s extraordinary pressure campaign against Belgium over frozen Russian assets. Brussels fines X to tame the last free platform. The Commission has slapped a €120 million penalty on Elon Musk’s platform, dressing it up as “transparency” enforcement. In reality, X is the only major network Brussels cannot control. It a...

The gender lobby insists debate is forbidden. Institutions rewrite language. Women’s prisons, refuges and schools are paying the price - and Europe’s political class looks the other way. In this Deep Dive, John O’Brien sits down with Kellie-Jay Keen (Posie Parker), one of the most outspoken defenders of women’s rights, for a blunt, unsparing conversation on how gender ideology captured institutions, intimidated feminists, and erased the very word woman. They discuss: • The moment she ...

Register now for Europe’s most important conservative gathering: Battle for the Soul of Europe — 3–4 December in Brussels: https://soulofeurope.co This week, Jacob Reynolds is joined by Richard Schenk and Pieter Cleppe to tackle the EU’s revived chat control plan, the cold shower of COP30, and yet another Brussels values crusade against Hungary. Chat Control is back The Commission has quietly revived proposals that would let authorities peer into your private messages. Encryption is bei...

For 30 years, COP summits have promised salvation and delivered nothing but slogans, moral posturing and declining European industry. At COP30, the same ritual repeats: frightened rhetoric, impossible targets, and yet more pressure on ordinary Europeans to pay for an ideology that refuses to face physics. Jacob Reynolds sits down with Samuele Furfari, engineer, former senior Commission official, and author of The Truth About COPs, 30 Years of Illusions, to dismantle the green mythology that ...

Register now for Europe’s most important conservative gathering: Battle for the Soul of Europe — 3–4 December in Brussels: https://soulofeurope.co Europe Runs Out of Money for Ukraine, V4 Regroups, and the Parliament Tries to Police Democracy The EU’s crazy solution to fund the Ukraine war Brussels is scrambling to fund a war it can no longer afford. With budget deficits rising across Europe, EU leaders are eyeing frozen Russian assets held in Belgium. This move could blow up the Euro...

Register here for the definitive conservative intellectual event of the year: 👉 https://soulofeurope.co Host John O’Brien is joined by Herman Kelly, President of the Irish Freedom Party, and Richard Schenk of MCC Brussels to discuss: 1. The War on Farmers The EU’s new climate law is not about saving the planet, it is about control. A 90% emissions cut by 2040 means mass culls, fertiliser bans and billions in fines. Irish farmers are told to destroy their herds while global corporations coll...

Register here for the definitive conservative intellectual event of the year: https://soulofeurope.co Host Jacob Reynolds is joined by Richard Schenk and António Tânger Corrêa, Vice-President of Portugal’s Chegaand MEP in the European Parliament, to ask: Has the Western Left become a coalition of contradictions? From New York to The Hague, Europe’s elites are embracing an unholy alliance of radical Islamism and identity politics - an alliance that may already be collapsing under its own hyp...

Host Jacob Reynolds is joined by sociologist and MCC Brussels Executive Director Frank Furedi, and Miguel Toledano, political adviser for Vox in the Patriots for Europe, to ask what happens when Europe’s leaders lose their sense of right and wrong, and why ordinary people are beginning to push back. France: Antifa Attack Mourning Vigil In Nantes, young people held a vigil for 12-year-old Lola, murdered by an Algerian woman. Antifa stormed the event, attacking mourners for daring to speak abo...

Jacob Reynolds is joined by executive director Frank Furedi and Brussels Signal’s Carl Deconinck to dissect a week where Europe’s self-image met reality – from a mooted Trump–Putin peace summit in Budapest to Britain’s two-tier policing and Brussels’ plan to import North Africa via Erasmus. BUDAPEST PEACE SUMMIT – EUROPE SIDELINED Budapest is on the verge of a historic Trump-Putin summit. The meeting might be on ice for now, but the panic in Brussels at the prospect of a peace deal told it's...

Jacob Reynolds is joined by Richard Schenk and Daria Malec to unpick Europe’s latest delusions from the migration pact to the Omnibus farce. THE MIGRATION PACT DELUSION The EU has its plan to pretend it takes migration seriously. The essence is that it forces governments to accept quotas or pay cash penalties. They call this "solidarity" - but it amounts to forcing countries to take migrants. Already, Poland is claiming an opt-out: is this really a bureaucratic fudge to let Tusk save f...

A big election victory for the patriotic candidate in Czechia sends a message to Brussels, Macron is looking more under threat than ever following another government collapse, and the EU Parliament just handed immunity to an Antifa activist accused of beating people in the street. Jacob Reynolds is joined by Richard Schenk and Agnieszka Kolek to dissect this weeks political news. CZECH PATRIOTS SAY NO TO BRUSSELS Czechia has just delivered another jolt to the complacent political class. The...

In this week’s MCC Brussels podcast Jacob Reynolds is joined by Frank Furedi and Richard Schenk to unpack how the EU censors and bullies its way through the continent. Moldova’s elections: Brussels hails a “pro-EU victory” — but only after two opposition parties were banned and social media censored. Foreign interference? Yes, from the EU itself. Drones everywhere: airports shut down, NATO panicking, paranoia in the skies. How much of it is areal security threat or Brussels manu...

Would banning Antifa risk crushing free speech? How Macron rewards terrorists while chasing applause. Why Hamas thrives in the court of global opinion. The Brussels bubble’s favourite lie: “Trump imported polarisation”. This week on the MCC Brussels podcast, Jacob Reynolds is joined by: Luke Gittos, writer and lawyer, and Agnieszka Kolek, head of Cultural Engagement MCC Brussels Together they take on three urgent questions: 👉 Should Antifa be designated a terrorist organisation—or does that...

In this urgent deep dive, John O'Brien sits down with Frank Furedi to discuss the rise of a hate-fuelled polarisation where politics is no longer about disagreement, but the desire to destroy. The appalling assassination of Kirk - who was deeply committed to debate and discussion with people he disagreed with - shows the grim reality of a hateful obsession with branding those we disagree with as pure evil. But it's bigger than just Kirk, across the West, those with contrary view...

After the assassination of Charlie Kirk, we expose the hard reality of the free speech crisis; explore how the EU is directly attacking speech with the DSA; and look at why Italy’s migration emergency is the test case no one in European politics can dodge. Polarisation has curdled into contempt. We open with the reaction to Charlie Kirk’s murder, how identity-politics framing dehumanises opponents, and why conservatives must keep the moral-high-ground on free speech. Then we pull apar...