hello and welcome to focus on europe. i'm liz shoo. thanks for joining us today! it's peak campaign season in poland. the country is set to elect a new parliament in mid-october. the ruling national conservative party pis is fighting to keep its majority, in a campaign rife with criticism against the eu. the verbal attacks are also aimed at liberal opposition leader donald tusk. he's the former president of the european council and the main challenger in these elections.

one of the hot topics of the campaign is women's rights. the opposition wants them improved - liberalize abortion rights and provide government financial support for fertility treatments. on the other hand, the ruling law and justice party wants to hold on to what it calls the traditional family. it wants to restrict abortion rights and is against financing fertility treatments. for women like agniezka konstanczak-wojcik such a move would make having a child almost unaffordable. rita came into the world in early september. she's cheerful, thirsty, and curious. everything a parent could hope for and for her mother agnieszka, nothing short of a miracle. the beginning is such a joy. we're still enjoying this feeling of bliss. rita's a real joy for me and my husband.

the miracle got underway here, nine months before rita was born, at an in-vitro fertility treatment center. as demonstrated here, the egg is fertilized with a sperm cell under the microscope. that's how rita came to be. before that, like many other couples, her parents had tried for years to conceive. even with in-vitro, only one in three attempts succeeds on average. but every procedure is billed and pricy. in poland, each ivf cycle costs around 3,000 euros. that's far too much for most young couples, says the clinic's director. it would be ideal if these procedures could be reimbursed - fully, like in other countries. in little rita's case, at least, the city of wroclaw covered half the cost. it means a lot to us because the whole procedure was very

expensive, and the city paid half the bill. that helped us a lot. i think it would also help other people who want to take part in the program. it could also help poland in general. the country's population is aging, and the birth rate is declining. hundreds of thousands of couples are unable to conceive. ivf or artificial insemination could offer them a chance. about a decade ago, poland did in fact have a program to support couples wanting children, but the right-wing conservative government ended the financial aid. now, representatives in parliament rail against ivf. some even call it human breeding. subsidies for human production, that is, for in-vitro procedures, are not a way to deal with infertility. this is about the procreation of a human being.

the ending of state support has real-world effects on the in-vitro center. not every couple who could make use of the treatment is able to afford it, says robert gizler, the center's medical director. they have to raise the money, usually from their families, or they need to cut costs elsewhere. unfortunately, we estimate ten to fifteen percent of couples never get further treatment due to financial reasons. the city of wroclaw's liberal government is unwilling to accept this situation and supports fertility treatments from its own budget. wroclaw has been funding the in-vitro program for four years. at one time, it was possible to have the polish state pay for the treatment. for political reasons, the government won't do that anymore. but we'd like to give people this chance.

the issue has been hotly debated in the polish election campaign. members of the law and justice party are staunch opponents of ivf. they've been in power nationally since 2015. but in wroclaw, the liberal civic platform party has the upper hand. it's also the party with the best chance of ousting the incumbent polish government in the next election - partly because of its stance on fertility treatments. i'm for freedom of choice and would like to see all such medical procedures funded by the state. we asked the governing conservative party why they oppose ivf and thus a way of increasing the sagging birth rate. we made a number of written and phone requests but never received an answer. however, a video of deputy prime minister jaroslaw kaczynski makes his position clear. this is the situation: young women are drinking just as much alcohol as menso, there aren't any children.

rita's mother would like to see as many couples as possible gain access to fertility treatments and fulfill their dream of having a child. and she hopes that the next polish government will help make that happen. the political climate in france is tense. since the beginning of the year, the country has seen nation-wide protests against pension reforms and unrest because of police brutalityall that has fueled people's dissatisfaction with those in power. it's local politicians like christian eurgal who feel the brunt of this growing sentiment. he became a target after a resident of his village of montjoi disagreed with one of his decisions as mayor. despite threats and intimidation, the politician is standing firm.

meet christian eurgal. for seven years now, he's been passionately serving as mayor of montjoi, a small village in southern france. but recent times have put him in the firing line of a bitter dispute. this weasel here is supposed to be me. they've been sprayed all around the village with arrows pointing towards my house. seeing these, i realized the situation had become dangerous for me and my family. the campaign against the mayor was started by a local farmer who wants to set up a business here. he wanted this formerly communal road to be reopened. the farmer says the mayor is elitist and knows nothing about agriculture. on youtube, he plays the rustic frenchman, complete with a beret and checkered shirt. he talks about raising woolly pigs.

the farmer is accompanied in the videos and supported by papacito, a right-wing populist youtuber. he rants about the british family whose property the old road passes through. this is occitanie first, then it's france. in occitanie, the english are fair game, we have more sympathy for wild boar here than for the english. the old path runs through the middle of the sinclairs' garden. a few weeks ago, their house was splattered with red paint. the mayor is supportive of the brit, who has lived here for many years. i don't think i have done anything wrong. it has been a very difficult period. my wife and i have both suffered from stress and have been

referred to hospital as a result of it. of course i'm angry. i don't deserve what has happened. i have done nothing wrong as i've said. at home, the mayor tries to find peace in painting. for him, giving in is not an option. what's happening in montjoi is not an isolated case, experts say. attacks and threats against mayors in france are on the rise. sometimes from the radical left, but more often from the extreme right. as far as the mayor of monjoi is concerned, we are dealing with people from the radical far-right, identitarians, and conspiracy theorists. it's a movement that questions the legitimacy of elected representatives and tries to weaken and destabilize them. and it uses every conceivable means to do so.

including youtube. papacito uploads his videos under the guise of satire. the people in this clip act out a scene in which they brutally attack the mayor - portrayed as this stuffed animal. videos like this receive hundreds of thousands of views. hundreds of threats were received by montjoi town hall as a result. the secretary was stunned. honestly, i've never seen anything like this in my entire life. there have been little disagreements before. but something like this is crazy for such a small community. we reached out to the farmer several times, but requests for comment go unanswered. yes, i know, but right now i have too much work. the online hate is even impacting the mayor's private life. his wife says she often feels unsafe at home.

i don't have my granddaughter over anymore because of the constant honking in the evenings. but i do understand when my husband says: do you want to leave such a world to your children and grandchildren? for eurgal, it's about who's in charge - the elected mayor or right-wing radicals. and he's not giving up the fight. if only everybody living in a democracy would choose to solve conflicts with civil discourse. in europe, romania is the country with the highest number of brown bears. they mostly live in the carpathian mountains, and don't have any natural predators but they can be a real threat to human beings. there have been several cases of bears attacking, injuring, or even killing people. constantin badescu's encounter with a brown bear left him scarred but luckily alive. he's often astounded by how carelessly other romanians act

around the bears. these wild bears live near this mountain road, in romania's carpathian mountains. drivers know the route for its so-called begging bears - waiting to be fed along the roadside. over just a few kilometers, we see ten brown bears. they're by this food stand too. and there's good reason to watch out for them. there's an overpopulation of bears. in search for food, they come closer to the villages, to the houses. normally, they're not dangerous. but people are sometimes foolish, and they approach them too much. and then bad things happen. feeding the bears is considered reckless. and many romanians fall into one of two camps. on the one side, there are passionate bear conservationists. on the other, people who want to see the bears shot.

elena badescu has been living in fear of bears for a year. and she just spotted fresh tracks. look here! these tracks are from saturday. look! see how big they are? almost a year ago, elena's husband constantin had a run-in with a bear. he shows us where it happened. i ducked and got lucky. i fell face-down. because if i'd fallen on my back and it had attacked me here that would have been a problem. constantin's wounds have since healed, but they've

left their mark. he refuses to stop his work because of the bears, but going into the forest hasn't been the same since the incident. when i come by here, i make noise. it's not clear just how many brown bears live in romania. the environment ministry reported about 8,000 in spring. ruben iosif thinks that figure is too high. romania has no country-wide, scientific bear monitoring. ruben is a wildlife biologist from the environmentalist foundation conservation carpathia. he looks for traces of bears every day: claw marks and hair. in the area he surveys, 290 bears were counted in the past year. one or two hairs looks promising, because it's thick enough. the color looks fresh. and what you look for is the bulb.

this is where the dna is. it's stuck in the bulb, in the root of the hair. the sample will go to the laboratory. an analysis will reveal whether the bear has already been catalogued or not. later, ruben discovers more traces. the biologist then tracks a bear that has lost its fear of humans. the trail led to this farm. mayor toader marian asks farmer ion musetescu whether there have been any attacks and if he's seen the bear recently. they're here every night. the bear from the area ruben josif monitors came here. and it was dangerousmeaning mayor marian had to act.

it got chased away several times, turned aggressive, and on may 31st, i made the decision as mayor to have it shot. if it were up to them, many more bears would be shot. in romania, some are even calling for half the population to be killed off - that would be 4,000 brown bears. back to wildlife biologist ruben josif. he's installed cameras. the images help document the routes bears use to migrate. in the past year, videos like these were taken of two adult animals. along a hiking path, ruben discovers bear droppings: a clear sign that bears are nearby. ruben has been fighting for people to coexist better with these animals. and he only approves of shooting them in one case.

what's the magnitude of the problem bears, what we can do with those bears, and what prevention measures we should apply so that we make sure we stop habituating bears to the villages. the bears along the mountain road are also part of the problem - and soon they may be shot. the environment minister has already designated 220 of them to be culled. our next report takes us to svalbard, an archipelago between the norwegian mainland and the north pole. around 2,000 people live in the main town called longyearbyen. but even in this remote region, the war in ukraine is very present. because there's a russian settlement, with residents who are loyal to putin. an ongoing source of tension.

approaching the archipelago of svalbard in norway's far north-- a region where the frontier spirit is still very much alive. its biggest town, longyearbyen, is often called the northernmost settlement on earth. but even here, people feel the fallout from the war in ukraine. ronny brunvoll is the head of visit svalbard - the local tourism board. before the war, they worked together with the russian community up here, offering tours to their nearby settlements. now, all connections have been severed. it has been severed take relationship between peaple and between companies so when it all burst out in february 2022, of course, it was a tense situation in longyearbyen as well as amongst the companies. we visit arild olsen, longyearbyen's mayor. it is a small community - with members from many parts of the world. svalbard is part of norway, but under a treaty signed in 1920,

russians as well as other nations have the right to live and work here. for many decades that went well. but now, olsen fears russia's war on ukraine could lead to conflicts here too. one reason, he says, is that many residents of the russian settlements promote the kremlin's propaganda. i see the same things that comes from the official kremlin, also comes from the official barentsburg. same, same but different. and i see there's same propaganda machinery going on in barentsburg and in the kremlin. for example, on may 9th, residents of the russian settlement of barentsburg staged a military-style victory parade. such actions on norwegian soil are seen as a provocation by many locals. we decide to travel over to barentsburg to get the full picture. in summer, the only way to get there from longyearbyen is by boat.

barentsburg with its coal mine and tourism industry is completely owned and managed by the russian state company trust arktikugol. ruslan safin works for the company, just like everyone here. he tells us how life has changed in the settlement since sanctions were imposed on russia. when they introduced sanctions, nobody thought about places like spitsbergen. i thought it was stupid. why? because this is a very special place. that is, including logistics and delivery. if all borders are blocked, supplies are stopped, then there may simply be an environmental disaster. and those opponents, they do not think about it, not predicting the further development of the situation. they say they still have good relations with the other nations present in svalbard, that nothing has changed since

the start of the war in ukraine. but we also hear that fewer tourists are visiting, and that getting supplies or certain goods is a problem. still, most people we speak to, including the head of the local school, point out they are happy to live here in norway's far north after all. there are no tough conflicts or confrontations here. i believe that people have different points of view. their understanding of events is different. but no one has arguments with the others. everyone understands that we are all together on this island. you cannot just leave. you have to somehow find common ground. at a concert in honor of the local mineworkers though, the patriotic russian overtones can give a different impression:

the arctic, with its resources and new maritime routes, is crucial for the kremlin as it tries to expand its influence here. russia wants to invest more money in new research projects and tourism. but right now barentsburg is quite isolated. some workers have left. back in longyearbyn we meet up with one of them. daria arnautova is from eastern ukraine. she left the russian settlement after 10 years, when the war in ukraine started. she says she could not live there anymore. from the very beginning, there were many people from ukraine who supported ukraine. and they, just like us, terminated their contracts and started leaving. but there are also a lot of people from ukraine, from the self-proclaimed republics in donetsk and lugansk.

they support russia the conflict lives on, daria arnautova says. with tensions rising in the high north, the war in ukraine has consequences in regions the kremlin might not have foreseen. english lawns are considered the epitome of garden art. it's no surprise that the lawn mower was invented by a brit. and now, some sports enthusiasts enjoy using the machines for an entirely different purpose. believe it or not - there's a lawn mower race that takes place every year in southern england. and yes, it's as crazy and noisy as it sounds. and they're off! if you think this is go-karting - think again! we're in england for the annual 12-hours of-le-mans-style-endurance race where competitors drive

that's right - lawn mowers. we're following marco lindner and his team from cologne for the fiftieth-anniversary race. marco has been in the sport for 20 years. his five-man team is here for the second time - representing germany. we have a clear strategy - we know who rides first, second and third, and at night, who goes to sleep when. we're going to try and place in the top five - but we'll have to see what happens during the night. the idea for the race was dreamt up in 1973 - where else but in a pub? teams compete on vehicles of all shapes and sizes. anything goes as long as it mows! the races take place all over england. this year's competition is more gruelling than ever. lawnmower racers need plenty of stamina. they need to be able to ride the mower and look out for not

only the other mower riders on the track, but they need to be physically fit. hour after hour of roaring engines and flashing lights. driving at night is especially demanding. for marco's team, it's pit stop after pit stop. we already had to change the engine in the first two hours and had two punctures. it will be hard to place in the top ten this year. but we'll push through all night. the sun comes up, but the finish line is a long way off for marco's team. an english team crosses the finish line first - after a remarkable 600 kilometers. the germans come in 18th. but no big deal - they're already looking forward to next year. that's it for this week's focus on europe. you can head to our website or social media for more stories from across europe. my name is liz shoo - see you next time!

berlin. israel has targets across the gaza strip, including an airstrike on a densely populated area in the south, a region israel had told people to relocate to. hamas media reports several people killed or wounded in the blast. also coming up, aid deliveries for gaza are on standby following intensive diplomacy. israel and egypt agree to allow