Arne Lietz, MEP, meets Brian Maguire over a coffee to talk about how to throw grenades, climate diplomacy, arms control, the EU’s intricate dance in the Middle East, growing up in East Germany, and what really happened to Martin Schulz.

Growing-up in East Germany, Arne Lietz learnt political resistance in the emerging laboratory of democracy. The wall would come down, and optimism would rise. Lietz retains the earnest expectancy that change is ever present, and that change for the better is always possible.

Speaking about corrosion of the rule of law, Lietz is emphatic that destructive nationalist tendencies can be pushed back, and that European values must be upheld, even at the cost of losing Member States who refuse to honour their initial pledge.