♪ michelle: a very warm welcome to "fokus on europe." glad you could join us. in some european countries, euthanasia and assisted suicide are legal. while critics equate these practices with murder, a belgian paralympian, who suffers from a painful, degenerative disease, fights for people to have the right to choose when they want to die. marieke: if i hadn't got those papers, i'd already, a long time ago, suicide. michelle: more on her story is coming up later in the program. hopes were high a decade ago that democracy had been embraced by the former communist republic of macedonia. the country was working towards membership in both the european union and nato. but the mood changed due to rising nationalism.

nationalist protestors even stormed parliament to attack newly elected officials. many of the young people in this small balkan state refuse to accept this. reporter: irina sterijovic is a young theater director in the capital skopje, and she's very worried about the nationalists she sees on the streets of her city. they've been demonstrating every day for 2.5 months now, carrying old and new macedonian flags through the city center, past her favorite cafe. skopje's young liberals gather here. they're horrified at the visible surge in nationalism. irina: you can see on their faces, you know. they are screaming makedonia, makedonia -- but their faces are all filled with hate. reporter: last year, sterijovic and thousands of others

demonstrated for months in what was dubbed macedonia's "colorful revolution," because protestors threw paint at official buildings. irina: you have people who are going to prison for five years for stealing ten kebabs. and you have a government who is all in provisions, in ordering murders, in faking elections and all that. and they are still on the top of the chain. they can still order the police to let the people into the parliament, you know? there is very, very much power for someone who is criminalized. reporter: numerous construction projects, including a colossal monument to alexander the great, were calculated to set macedonian nationalism in stone. the initiative, skopje 2014, is said to have cost a total of 700 million euros. much of that money is thought to have been diverted into private accounts, and the structures

built were shoddy. that's another reason sterijovic and other protesters hit the streets last year. the young director sees macedonia as a multi-ethnic republic. the population is about a quarter ethnic albanian, plus a few smaller minorities alongside a slavic macedonian majority, which the nationalists are trying to rally. irina: they teach them, practically, with everything -- with media, with propaganda, with their speeches -- they teach them that they don't have to do anything, just be macedonian. and by being macedonian, you are right by any case. reporter: irina sterijovic is certain the nationalist wave is part of a plan -- that those in power are trying to cover up

shady construction deals. irina: half of this that is still on building -- now it's considered illegal buildings. reporter: special prosecutors have since been assigned to investigate the allegations of corruption. these three women are working to build a case against the country's long-serving former prime minister. many see it as a ray of hope for change. katica: we have to hand our list of indictments -- the ones that we gathered evidence for -- to the courts. but the decision for a conviction or acquittal is still up to the judge. reporter: sterijovic only hopes the anti-corruption investigators won't let themselves be intimidated by the outgoing nationalist-led government. irina: you cannot get to that

emotional level with fighting, because you lose there. reporter: although macedonia remains deeply divided, irina sterijovic still hopes the ideals of the colorful revolution will win in the end. michelle: she's a celebrated paralympian who has won several medals, but marieke vervoort is preparing to die. at 38, the belgian wheelchair racer suffers such pain, she often wakes her neighbors with her screams. she's decided that when it gets too great, she'll be euthanized -- a practice that is legal in belgium. the athlete would like for people to understand that she doesn't want to die -- she wants to live -- but on her own terms. reporter: marieke vervoort seems as free and happy as a bird. indoor skydiving may look easy, but it actually requires incredible physical control and strength. vervoort is rapidly losing both.

but meanwhile, she's glad that she can be here. experiences like this are better than any painkiller. marieke: you're always lost on your wheelchair or in your bed, and you're not able to do things by yourself, and then you're flying like a bird and seeing your wheelchair there by the door -- it's amazing, it's an amazing feeling. reporter: vervoort is one of belgium's most famous and successful athletes. she and her dog zenn have become cult figures in the country. vervoort held the wheelchair sprint world record for a long time. last year, she took part in the rio paralympics after spending

three days in the hospital in excruciating pain -- and won silver. but that was probably her last medal. afterwards, the athlete announced that she was ending her career, and also said that she had signed euthanasia papers in belgium back in 2008. marieke: i put my limits always further and further, because i've got those papers in my hands and i know when it's too far, when it's too much for me, then i have my own life in my hands. reporter: vervoort has an incurable spinal disease that causes her acute pain. her vision is failing, and she now frequently loses consciousness. several doctors consented to her

wish for assisted suicide when she so decides. this didn't stop a wave of criticism after she made her announcement in rio. marieke: for a lot of people, euthanasia is murder. but look at me. i'm the perfect example that it's not murder. if i hadn't got those papers, i did already, a long time ago, suicide. reporter: marieke vervoort was 14 when her illness first became apparent. she's been in a wheelchair since 2000. and she's been impressing people with her physical skills and mental strength ever since. the paralympian always refused to let pain and increasing difficulties get her down. and she continued to train with dedication as they steadily worsened. she's had a series of serious

accidents, like when she injured herself severely four years ago. marieke: the doctor told me you will never reach the top again and it could be that you can never use your shoulder like before again, and what i answered was, you're lucky that i can't reach my finger. i'll be back. reporter: and she did come back, and she was able to reach the top. in fact, she continued to win events. and outside sport, she did things that most would never dare -- apparently fearless. her motto is carpe diem -- seize the day. marieke: it was amazing. it was amazing, with the wheelchair and all. reporter: since vervoort has been forced to slow down, her suffering has increased. marieke: the bad moments are coming more and more. i don't have four good days in a week anymore, so i really have

to enjoy every little moment. reporter: the paralympian has said she doesn't want to die badly, in misery. she wants to be conscious in her final moments, and with friends. she has many. they've learned what to do when she suddenly loses consciousness. regaining it is growing increasingly difficult. marieke: i don't want a funeral. i want that everybody take a glass of champagne and say, salud, skol, of the beautiful life of marieke. i want that. i don't want that people cry.

thanks to the disease, i could do things that other people can only dream about. reporter: ironically, marieke vervoort has gained fame for saying that she's opted for assisted suicide when the time comes. yet what people all over the world admire her for most is her incredible will to survive. michelle: an idea from a teenage refugee far from home has changed life in denmark. selina juul arrived in copenhagen from moscow when she was just 13. after years of barely having enough to eat, she was overwhelmed by the abundance of food available in the average danish supermarket. but she was disheartened when she saw how much of it went to waste. so, she decided to do something about it. reporter: selina juul goes to supermarkets to campaign, not to shop. she's the face of a danish

initiative trying to stop food waste. selina: you shouldn't eat food after the expiry of the use-by-date. now there is another date called "best before." and you can actually eat the food that is past the best before date. so remember that best "before" does not mean "toxic after." reporter: juul grew up in russia. she says that when she came to denmark as a teenager, the affluent society she found here opened her eyes to wastage. selina: i got very upset. so eight years ago i started out a facebook group. it's called "stop wasting food," and two weeks later we were on national media, and today we have become the biggest danish organization against food waste -- 63,000 people just on facebook. so, it's huge. reporter: juul is clearly not the only one protesting against waste and overabundance. but supermarkets continue to

throw away food that's no longer in its prime. at best, it sometimes gets used for other things. ditte: this is our bio-container, and this is where we throw out food that we unfortunately don't get to sell in time, and all the food is going to be bio-gas. so it will be used for green heating for households, actually. reporter: wefood is a store to warm juul's heart. a supermarket full of goods past their best before date. it can't offer fresh fish or meat. instead, there are lots of frozen goods here, but also vegetables. customers love the low prices. a second branch has already opened. and some wares are produced especially for the store. an organic baker nearby makes more than he can sell, and passes the excess on to wefood. jens: he's doing that on purpose, and that's -- >> why? jens: well, because at wefood,

we act as a safety net because we pay him a symbolic figure and we cover the costs of his production. so he's actually able to systematically produce more than he needs to and then all the stuff that he doesn't sell -- because then if he produces an excessive amount, then he's ensuring that he never runs out of bread. and at the same time, if he has too much, then we can just collect it for him and cover all of his expenses. we go to his stores and pick it up for free. >> so, without wefood, he might produce less? jens: yeah, he would, probably. reporter: food production puts a strain on the environment, and emits large amounts of co2. a real turnaround would be to reduce the amount of food produced, not just redistribute it, as selina juul also recognizes. selina: the wefood store, it's a great, great, great initiative, but it does not address the root cause. and the root cause is that there's still a lot of food being produced and overproduced.

so basically, the ideal scenario is that the wefood store is closed because there's not enough surplus produced for the wefood store. reporter: still, there has been a change in mindset in denmark, if a modest one. wastage rates in the country have fallen by 25% in the last decade -- a personal victory for juul. she traces her commitment to her youth at the end of the soviet union. selina: communism collapsed. there were food shortages in the stores. the stores were basically empty. so, we wasted no food because basically there was no food to be wasted. we had huge respect for food. so, when i came to denmark 24 years ago, i saw the supermarkets and i was shocked. i was shocked to see so much food. reporter: juul hopes to get the big supermarket chains to start offering rebates on single products, rather than volume discounts. but above all, she says

customers have to get involved in fighting waste. >> it's good to do something to stop it, so we can live sustainably and help the environment. >> i think the normal shops should be way better at estimating how much of the product they need so that they can sell it out before it goes bad. reporter: that will require danish consumers to rein in spending. so activists like selina juul are hitting supermarkets to enlist them in the fight against wasting food. michelle: greek and turkish cypriots alike long for peace. cyprus has been formally split since turkish troops occupied the north more than 40 years ago. but in recent years, activists have been able to make more progress on peace between the two sides than any politician. the turkish-greek committee on missing persons in cyprus has worked to exhume the bodies from violence in the past and return

them to their families -- all without pointing the finger of blame at whoever was responsible. they hope that by ending the cycle of retribution, cyprus can have a new start. reporter: the remains of this man, listed as missing, have lain buried in the earth of cyprus for 43 years. members of the committee on missing persons found them. young turkish and greek cypriots are joining forces to help bring peace to their divided island. irini: i think the fact that turkish and greek cypriots are working together here is very important. it makes a statement about cooperation. i view the committee on missing persons as a microcosm of our future society. a society where turkish and

greek cypriots will be able to live together again peacefully. reporter: on average, the committee's scientists only find remains of someone killed in the civil war at one in three excavation sites. even so, more than half of those listed as missing have now been located and identified, and their remains given over to relatives. evren: we're looking for the missing. right now, that's the most important task on cyprus. we're looking for the mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, uncles -- for everyone. we don't bring joy to people, but we do bring closure. and closure provides an opportunity for a new beginning, which can lead us to peace. reporter: the laboratory of the committee on missing persons.

34-year-old erdinc usta works as an archeologist, laying out the bones to be photographed. in this job, you can't have any qualms about working with the dead. but even after ten years, usta says the stories still affect him. erdinc: once, we found a skeleton that still had a ring on one finger. when i examined it, i found it had an engagement date engraved on it. and it was the very same day i got engaged myself. this skeleton was that of a young person, and that really got to me. reporter: the ioannou family lives in the southern part of the island. eleftherios ioannou's remains were found in november, 2016. his brothers and sister had waited 42 years for the news.

in 1974, andros and lenia were teenagers. like eleftherios, kypros fought in the civil war as a soldier. the family hasn't let the pain of his loss turn to hatred for turkish cypriots. they're very grateful to the committee on missing persons. andreas: to us, the work of the committee on missing persons is the work of god. it really is the work of god. i hope very much that they'll continue to bring good news -- to all turkish-cypriot and all greek-cypriot families who are missing someone. reporter: the funeral is held the very next morning. and the pain the family has carried inside for 42 years bursts forth. a half hour later, at the

ioannous family plot, their missing brother is laid to rest. the work of the committee on missing persons may not be joyful, but it is helping many people on cyprus to finally close a painful chapter in their lives, and hopefully move on. michelle: recent opinion polls show a majority of cypriots support making compromises for reunification. but with so many failed attempts at talks over the last 40 years, some are worried their island will never be as one again. germany is known for its passion for football. and a small region in the far northeast of the country is no exception. unusually, the cash-strapped local team fields mostly foreign players, just like a top flight club on a multi-million euro budget.

as a result, the team have found themselves in a whole new ball game. reporter: here are the players from grun-weiß nadrensee -- a german district-division soccer team. but they're not speaking german -- they're speaking polish. the players are poles. they train in szczecin in poland, and play across the border in nadrensee in germany. it's a bit complicated. szymon: they don't understand us, and we don't understand them -- there are misunderstandings. one guy got a red card, even though he had just said something totally normal in polish. reporter: szymon starosta is packing up his gear. today, the team will be facing off against arch-rival blau-weßs leopoldshagen. szymon always takes along his poland scarf, even in to the german district division games, when the players head over the border for league matches.

>> who's up front today? >> misiek for sure, and skuter, too. reporter: nadrensee is hosting today's game. a few years ago, the small border town no longer had enough players to make up a team, because too many had moved to western germany. but the locals were determined to have a home team. mariusz nawrocki came to the rescue. the pole, who lives in nadrensee, began recruiting players from across the border. for him, it's an act of international cooperation. mariusz: we have one german here. he's turning 18 today, by the way, and he's learning polish at home -- even polish songs. i know of four people who are learning polish. they really want to be able to speak the language.

reporter: one of the players has been injured. that's nothing unusual, but in the past, things were much rougher. club chairman andreas pauch remembers it well. andreas: at first it was pretty bad. we were playing down a division, and there were a lot of arguments -- it wasn't good. there were also fights. reporter: but the players have put that behind them. the team is nearing the top of the district league table and plays well against leopoldshagen today, to the delight of the german fans. >> it's nice that we can continue to exist as a club, and that through sports we're making nadrensee known in the district -- in the state -- even across the nation. reporter: nadrensee wins 4-2 -- a good result. the fans are hoping yet another trophy is on the way, and that

the positive pr might even inspire someone to donate a new sign to the club. michelle: hopefully that referee will pick up a few polish phrases, too. that's it for today. thank you for watching. let us know what you think about that or any of today's stories by getting in touch on twitter, or visit our facebook page, "dw stories," to find out more. in the meantime, it's goodbye from me and the whole "fokus on europe" team. see you next time. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

steves: i'm meeting my florentine friend tommaso at i fratellini, a venerable hole in the wall much loved among locals for its tasty sandwiches and wine sold by the glass. -grazie. -tommaso: thank you.

and when you're done, you leave it on the rack. steves: boy, it's intense in the city. tommaso: yes, it is. well, if you want to leave the tourists, let's cross the river, and let's go to where the real florentines live and work. -steves: what's that? -tommaso: the oltrarno area. steves: there's much more to this town than tourism, as you'll quickly find in the characteristic back lanes of the oltrarno district. artisans busy at work offer a rare opportunity to see traditional craftsmanship in action. you're welcome to just drop in to little shops, but, remember, it's polite to greet the proprietor. your key phrase is, "can i take a look?" -posso guardare? -man: certo. steves: grazie. here in this great city of art, there's no shortage of treasures in need of a little tlc. this is beautiful. how old is this panting? woman: this is a 17th-century painting. steves: from florence? woman: we don't know. -maybe the area is genova. -steves: genova. each shop addresses a need with passion and expertise.

fine instruments deserve the finest care. grand palaces sparkle with gold leaf, thanks to the delicate and exacting skills of craftspeople like this. a satisfying way to wrap up an oltrarno experience is to enjoy a florentine steakhouse, which any italian meat lover knows means chianina beef. the quality is proudly on display. steaks are sold by weight and generally shared. the standard serving is about a kilo for two, meaning about a pound per person. so, both of those for four people? woman: yes. steves: the preparation is simple and well established. good luck if you want it well done. man: i am hungry, yeah. oh, look at this. ah! steves: oh, beautiful. [ laughs ] man: wow. steves: chianina beef. -woman: white beans. -steves: okay. perfect. man: and that one. steves: so, the meat is called chianina. tommaso: that's its name,

because it comes from the chianti. steves: oh, from chianti. okay. and tell me about this concept of the good marriage of the food, you know? tommaso: well, when you have the chianina meat, you want to have some chianti wine, and they go together well. they marry together. we say, "si sposano bene." steves: si sposano bene. a good marriage. in other words, the wine is from tuscany, -and the meat is from tuscany. -tommaso: exactly. you don't want to have a wine from somewhere else. that's it.

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