Congratulations pour in from across EU, with leaders from Spain, Poland, France, Britain, Denmark, Romania, Sweden and beyond hailing a new chapter
EU leaders heaped praise on Péter Magyar after his decisive election victory in Hungary against the long-serving prime minister Viktor Orbán, who many saw as a direct threat to Europe’s peace and prosperity.
The outpouring reflected a deep frustration with Orbán across the EU’s 27 member states and its institutions.
Continue reading...Former Ukrainian major general says 4kg of material was most likely an attempt to influence Hungary’s election
The amount of explosives discovered in Serbia last week would not have been enough to destroy the Balkan Stream gas pipeline, prompting an expert to conclude it was probably a Russian intelligence plot aimed at influencing Hungary’s impending election.
A former Ukrainian major general and a munitions specialist told the Guardian calculations made by his company showed the 4kg of explosives recovered by Serbia’s military security agency in Kanjiža could not have seriously ruptured the pipe.
Continue reading...US vice-president said bloc tried to ‘destroy’ country’s economy, despite it being a net recipient of EU funds
During his visit to Budapest, where he heaped praise on the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, days before the country’s decisive election, JD Vance claimed the EU was responsible for “one of the worst examples of election interference” he had ever seen.
Standing alongside Orbán on Tuesday, the US vice-president said: “The bureaucrats in Brussels have tried to destroy the economy of Hungary. They have tried to make Hungary less energy-independent. They have tried to drive up costs for Hungarian consumers. And they’ve done it all because they hate this guy.”
Continue reading...France’s National Rally missed key targets in local elections ahead of next year’s seismic presidential vote – and the mainstream is doing OK elsewhere, too
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The Rassemblement National is not invincible. A year out from a make-or-break presidential vote, that might be the main lesson (though there are others, which may prove more significant) from last weekend’s local elections in France. What’s more, news elsewhere – Giorgia Meloni’s referendum defeat in Italy, Janez Janša beaten in Slovenia, Hungary’s Viktor Orbán in trouble, the left bloc largest in Denmark – might suggest the rest of Europe’s far right are not having it all their own way, either.
But let’s focus first on France – if only because while local elections are rarely a wholly accurate guide to future national outcomes, these ones seem to provide some pointers – and the stakes in the country’s next major election are vertiginously high.
Continue reading...US president’s backing comes as Hungary’s PM faces toughest election campaign of 16 years in office
Donald Trump has endorsed Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, who faces his toughest electoral challenge next month since taking power 16 years ago, as Europe’s far-right leaders gather for a “grand assembly” in Budapest.
In a video message, the US president told the national-conservative Cpac Hungary conference in the capital on Saturday that Orbàn, who has been trailing in the polls behind a centre-right rival for more than a year, was a “fantastic guy”.
Continue reading...German chancellor Friedrich Merz described Orbán’s U-turn on the loan Hungary had agreed to in December as ‘a gross act of disloyalty’
EU leaders fumed after Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, refused to drop his opposition to a vital €90bn (£78bn) loan for Ukraine, accusing him of betrayal and acting in bad faith.
German chancellor Friedrich Merz described Orbán’s U-turn on the loan Hungary had agreed to in December as “a gross act of disloyalty” adding: “I am firmly convinced that it will leave deep marks.”
Continue reading...Daria Boyarskaya coordinating OSCE mission overseeing vote in which pro-Moscow Viktor Orbán could lose power
Hungarian rights groups have raised concerns over the appointment of Vladimir Putin’s former interpreter to a key role in an international election monitoring mission, amid fears of Russian interference ahead of Hungary’s crucial vote next month.
Daria Boyarskaya, who worked for many years for Russia’s foreign ministry and interpreted in numerous high-level meetings including one between Putin and Donald Trump, is now a senior adviser at the parliamentary assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE-PA), based in Vienna. She is coordinating the body’s mission to monitor next month’s parliamentary election in Hungary.
Continue reading...The bloc’s foremost troublemaker could lose April’s election, but the headaches he’s caused will not necessarily disappear with him
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How do you solve a problem like Viktor Orbán? By crossing your fingers and hoping it disappears in just over three weeks’ time. But even if the European Union’s disruptor-in-chief is ousted in elections next month (which is far from certain), Europe’s Hungary problem is unlikely to vanish overnight.
EU leaders will gather in Brussels on Thursday and Friday for yet another summit that will be at least partly hijacked by Orbán, Hungary’s illiberal prime minister.
Continue reading...Audiences draw parallels between the abduction plot of Feels Like Home and Viktor Orbán’s 16-year reign
It’s seven o’clock on a Tuesday night, and one of the most popular movie theatres in Budapest is full, not an empty seat in sight. The audience is not here for a Hollywood blockbuster, but a Hungarian film that barely had the budget to be made.
Feels Like Home (Itt Érzem Magam Otthon) has captured moviegoers not only with its striking visuals but also with its timing – its release coming before Hungary’s pivotal parliamentary elections on 12 April.
Continue reading...US president also praises Hungarian leader’s hardline stance on immigration during friendly White House summit
The US has granted Hungary a one-year exemption from US sanctions on importing oil and gas from Russia, according to a White House official, after Viktor Orbán pressed his case for a reprieve during a meeting with Donald Trump in Washington.
Last month, Trump imposed Ukraine-related sanctions on Russian oil companies Lukoil and Rosneft that carried the threat of further sanctions on entities in countries buying oil from them.
Continue reading...Netherlands and Hungary move towards designation as draft resolution reportedly backed by 79 MEPs in 20 countries
Where Donald Trump leads, Europe’s nationalists and far right follow. After a Truth Social post last month, when Trump announced the US would designate antifa, the decentralised anti-fascist movement, “a major terrorist organisation”, his international allies swung into action.
That same day, the Dutch parliament, where the largest party is Geert Wilders’ far-right PVV, passed a resolution, noting the US decision and calling on the government to declare antifa a terrorist organisation in the Netherlands.
Continue reading...US president claims Russia is in ‘big economic trouble’ as he calls for Nato countries to stop imports of Russian oil
Donald Trump has said he believes Ukraine can regain all the land that it has lost since the 2022 Russian invasion in one of the strongest statements of support he has given Kyiv.
The US president delivered his upbeat assessment by claiming Russia was in big economic trouble in a post on Truth Social after meeting the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in New York.
Continue reading...Rights group also finds rise in openly gay, bisexual and transgender people running for office in 36 countries
Politicians in at least 51 countries used homophobic or transphobic rhetoric during elections last year, from depicting LGBTQ+ identity as a foreign threat to condemning “gender ideology”, according to a new study of 60 countries and the EU.
However, there were also gains for LGBTQ+ representation in some countries. Openly gay, bisexual and transgender people ran for office in at least 36 countries, including for the first time in Botswana, Namibia and Romania – albeit unsuccessfully – according to the report by Outright International. The number of LGBTQ+ elected officials doubled to at least 233 in Brazil.
Continue reading...Hungary’s foreign minister claims missile strike on energy infrastructure is ‘another attempt to drag us into war’
Ukraine has hit a key pumping station on the Druzhba oil pipeline bringing fuel to Europe from Russia, knocking out supplies to Hungary and Slovakia, the only remaining EU member states still receiving Russian oil.
As Ukraine targets infrastructure crucial to Moscow’s war effort in response to the Russian onslaught, the commander of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces, Robert Brovdi, announced the attack on the Unecha pumping station in the Bryansk region.
Continue reading...Forum speakers said Donald Trump’s second term resembles strongman Viktor Orbán’s first years in power
Democrats must organize urgently for the 2026 midterm elections and avoid a “it can’t happen here” mentality to stop Donald Trump from staging a full-scale autocratic takeover, a Hungarian opposition parliamentarian has said.
Katalin Cseh, a critic of Hungary’s strongman prime minister, Viktor Orbán, told a forum on authoritarianism that the central European country’s experience held vital lessons for Trump’s opponents in their attempts to resist his assaults on US institutions and democratic norms since his return to the White House.
Continue reading...Vessels on Rhine in Germany and Danube in Hungary forced to sail partially loaded
Low water levels after heatwaves and drought are limiting shipping on some of Europe’s biggest rivers including the Rhine and the Danube and pushing up transport costs.
As much of Europe swelters in hot temperatures, water levels in its main rivers have fallen. This is affecting shipping along the Rhine – one of Europe’s key waterways – south of Duisburg and Cologne in Germany, including the choke point of Kaub, forcing vessels to sail about half full.
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: Hungary has relentlessly cracked down on LGBTQ+ rights – but banning Pride proved a step too far, as European politicians joined its biggest ever crowd
Good morning. In 1997, Budapest became the first capital in central and eastern Europe to hold a Pride parade. Three decades later, the march is firmly established as Hungary’s biggest LGBTQ+ event, and, in the words of one opposition MP, “a vital expression of joy, resistance and visibility”.
On Saturday, Budapest Pride took on the illiberal ambitions of Viktor Orbán and, rainbow flags flying high under a cloudless blue sky, as many as 200,000 marchers from 30 countries – the biggest turnout ever – were there to say it won. At least, for the time being.
Welfare |Vicky Foxcroft, the Labour whip who resigned in protest against disability benefit cuts, has said Keir Starmer’s concessions do not yet go far enough to win her over, as No 10 launched a fresh attempt to stem the revolt against its welfare bill.
NHS | Britain’s health service is estimated to be spending £50m a year on the effects of poverty and deprivation. One senior NHS figure said there were “medieval” levels of illnesses among poorer communities
Glastonbury | The organisers of Glastonbury have said they are “appalled” by comments made by Bob Vylan after the punk duo appeared to incite violence, something the festival said went against its ethos of “hope, unity, peace and love”.
Environment | Wildlife activists who exposed horrific conditions at Scottish salmon farms were subjected to surveillance by private spies-for-hire, including being followed and photographed, the Guardian can reveal.
Weather | Today’s temperature in the UK is expected to rise to 34C, just short of the record for the hottest ever June day, 35.6C, recorded in Southampton in 1976.
Continue reading...Organisers of Budapest Pride said the government was attempting to restrict peaceful protests by targeting them
Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez are preparing for the last party of their three-day wedding festivities in Venice as demonstrators mobilise for a final protest against the couple’s opulent nuptials in the Italian lagoon city.
The Amazon founder, 61, and the former TV journalist, 55, exchanged vows in front of around 200 celebrity guests in a black-tie ceremony on the nearby island of San Giorgio Maggiore on Friday evening.
Continue reading...Record numbers expected at march despite Hungary’s leader saying those attending will face ‘legal consequences’
Record numbers of people are expected to take part in Budapest Pride on Saturday, with Hungarians joining forces with campaigners and politicians from across Europe in a march that has become a potent symbol of pushback against the Hungarian government’s steady rollback of rights.
“This weekend, all eyes are on Budapest,” Hadja Lahbib, the European commissioner for equality, told reporters in the Hungarian capital on Friday. “This is bigger than one Pride celebration, one Pride march. It is about the right to be who you are, to love who you want, whether it is in Budapest, in Brussels or anywhere else.”
Continue reading...As many as 70 said to be planning to show solidarity at LGBTQ+ march after Hungary’s PM tried to ban it
Dozens of MEPs are expected to attend the Pride march in Budapest this month, in defiance of the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, who has tried to ban the event.
In a debate in the European parliament in Strasbourg, MEPs from liberal, left and green groups pledged to be in Budapest on 28 June for the parade to show solidarity with gay Hungarians.
Continue reading...