Eurotopics.net

The Hungarian election taking place this Sunday is of major significance for the EU as a whole. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, whose 16-year rule has become increasingly authoritarian, based the election campaign of his Fidesz party on hostility towards Brussels and Kyiv, and has received backing from both Washington and Moscow. In the polls, however, he is trailing behind opposition candidate Péter Magyar and his Tisza party.

A meeting between US President Donald Trump and Nato Secretary-General Mark Rutte on Wednesday has failed to mend the rifts within the alliance. Rutte said afterwards that Trump was "clearly disappointed" by the Europeans' refusal to support the US in the war against Iran, while Trump pointedly raised the subject of Greenland again.

With just a day to go before direct negotiations between the US and Iran begin in Islamabad, both sides are accusing each other of failing to honour the ceasefire. Israel has stepped up its attacks in Lebanon, which Tehran says breaches the ceasefire agreement. And the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz – a key US demand vis-à-vis Iran – remains uncertain.

Now that the two-week ceasefire in the Iran war has begun, doubts about whether it will hold are growing. Israel has intensified its attacks on Lebanon, which Tehran sees as a violation of the agreement, and uncertainty about whether the Strait of Hormuz will remain open as agreed is increasing. Talks between Iran and the US are due to begin in Pakistan on Saturday. Europe's press delivers a sobering assessment of the situation.