Host: What Rumen Radev's outright majority means for the Western response to Russia. Plus: a Ukrainian drone strike on a Russian port, a German woman arrested in Russia, Poland's last coal miners, and why Kanye West can't find a stage anywhere in Europe. This is Europa Daily.

Host: We start in Sofia, where near-complete results confirm that Rumen Radev's Progressive Bulgaria party has won an absolute majority in parliament. With eighty-seven per cent of the vote counted, according to the BBC, the party has secured enough seats to govern alone — a result that surpassed opinion polls and marks one of the strongest performances by a single party in Bulgaria in a generation. France 24 describes it as unprecedented since 1999. Radev, a former fighter pilot who stepped down as Bulgaria's president in January to run in this election, hailed what he called a victory of hope. He is an EU critic who has called for renewing ties with Russia — and his win potentially ends the extraordinary instability that produced eight elections in five years. Now, why should this matter in London? Because EU sanctions on Russia require unanimity, and a Kremlin-friendly government in Sofia could block their renewal — complicating the broader Western effort to maintain pressure on Moscow, an effort in which Britain has been one of the most forward-leaning participants. Radev has been compared to Viktor Orbán, and a second reliable veto inside the European Council would fundamentally reshape the bloc's foreign-policy arithmetic. Bulgaria also sits on NATO's south-eastern flank, bordering Turkey, so this is a NATO question as much as an EU one. Dr Petia Gueorguieva, a political science researcher at the New Bulgarian University, told France 24 that the result has broader implications for Bulgaria's political stability, economic pressures, and geopolitical positioning. She noted that while Bulgaria remains anchored within the EU and NATO, Radev successfully consolidated what she called a highly heterogeneous electorate — uniting pro-reform citizens with more Eurosceptic and economically vulnerable groups. That coalition is striking. DW describes Progressive Bulgaria as a new, left-leaning, pro-Russian party, and Radev built his campaign around smashing what he calls an oligarchy of corrupt veteran politicians. But not everyone is convinced. Our correspondent Eden Maclachlan has been reporting from Sofia.

Correspondent: Thanks. What's been striking on the ground here is the generational divide. Younger voters are not particularly convinced by Radev's platform. One of them, Aleksandar Tanev, a twenty-two-year-old law student, told me Radev is not a credible option. He believes Radev is part of the same model of politicians he claims to oppose — and that as president, Radev had the opportunity to use the caretaker governments to fight what Tanev calls this mafia, but didn't. That scepticism among younger voters is real, but it clearly wasn't enough to dent the scale of this result. Radev's support among older and rural voters carried him to an outright majority that few pollsters predicted would be this large.

Host: Thanks, Eden. So the picture in Sofia is a commanding parliamentary majority built on an unlikely coalition of pro-reform voters and Eurosceptics, led by a pro-Russian former president who wants to reset Bulgaria's relationship with Moscow. For anyone watching the Western alliance's cohesion on Ukraine — and that very much includes Whitehall — this is a result worth watching closely.

Host: Turning to the war in Ukraine. Russian authorities say one man was killed in a Ukrainian drone raid on the Black Sea port city of Tuapse. That's according to DW. Britain has been training Ukrainian forces and has a longstanding interest in freedom of navigation in the Black Sea, so the security of that corridor — vital for grain and energy shipments — is not an abstract concern here. Separately, Russia has arrested a German woman on suspicion of planning a bombing. DW reports the arrest but details remain thin. What we know is that a German national is now in Russian custody on serious charges — raising uncomfortable questions about the safety of European citizens in Russia and whether Moscow is increasingly willing to use detentions as leverage. We'll bring you more on both developments as details emerge.

Host: Now to southern Poland, and a story about what's underground. Eighty thousand people still work in coal mines in Poland — home to the last mines in a European Union that is fully committed to the energy transition. A new photo essay in the Guardian documents life in these mines, and the details are vivid. Take Rafał Dzuman, a forty-nine-year-old team leader of the G-2 mining crew. He's been descending seven hundred metres below ground every day for at least twenty years at the Murcki-Staszic mine in southern Poland. Coal dust is so fine, the essay notes, that it seeps into the pores of the skin — a thin black line permanently traces the outline of Dzuman's eyes, as if he were wearing makeup. The mine sits on the southern outskirts of Katowice. It opened in the mid-seventeenth century — 1657 — and today it's owned by the Polish mining giant PGG. It still extracts about twenty-three thousand tonnes of coal a day. That is not a relic operation. Anyone who grew up in or near the coalfields of South Wales, Yorkshire, or Nottinghamshire will recognise something in these images — the same dust, the same camaraderie, the same arguments about what happens when the pits close. Britain went through its own wrenching version of this story decades ago. Poland is living through it now, with an added complication: coal is being extracted at record rates worldwide, and with the Iran war pushing up oil and gas prices, some in Poland are asking whether it is worth completely phasing out this fossil fuel. It's a question that echoes the current debate over North Sea oil licences here at home. Once-active mines are being converted to other uses, but the economic argument for keeping the remaining ones open has got louder as energy prices climb.

Host: And finally — a story that started as entertainment news and has become something more interesting. Kanye West's upcoming concerts in Poland and Switzerland have been cancelled, the latest in a growing wave of European venues refusing to host the American rapper over his past antisemitic comments. London venues were among the first to pull the plug, and the pattern has now spread right across the continent. In Switzerland, it was FC Basel that made the call. The football club is responsible for concerts and events at its St Jakob-Park stadium, and it told Reuters that after reviewing a request for West to perform there in June, it decided against it. In Poland, a municipal stadium also stopped an upcoming show. What makes this worth pausing on is the pattern. Each cancellation involves a different country and a different kind of venue — a Swiss football club, a Polish municipal stadium, French and British concert halls. Different legal frameworks, different ownership structures, different political pressures. And yet the outcome is strikingly uniform: no stage for Kanye West. No central directive required — just a set of shared norms about antisemitism and public order arriving at the same conclusion, country by country. For West's European tour, the practical effect is that it's now in serious doubt.

Host: That is your Europa Daily. A new government in Sofia with big implications for the Western alliance, a war that keeps reaching further, eighty thousand miners still underground in Katowice, and a rapper running out of European venues. We're back tomorrow morning. Thanks for listening.

• The Guardian Europe: Eurosceptic Radev poised for majority in Bulgarian election – Europe live
• DW World: Ukraine hits Russian Black Sea port city, 1 dead
• The Guardian Europe: Pro-Russian Rumen Radev on course for runaway victory in Bulgarian elections
• BBC Europe: Rumen Radev's party wins Bulgarian election
• France 24 Europe: Bulgaria's Kremlin-friendly former president Radev wins parliamentary election
• France 24 Europe: 'Unprecedented since 1999': Radev secures absolute majority with reformist and eurosceptic coalition
• DW World: Bulgaria: Pro-Russian Radev takes lead in early vote count
• The Guardian Europe: Europe’s last coal – a photo essay
• The Guardian Europe: Kanye West’s European tour in doubt as more concerts cancelled in Poland and Switzerland

Host: Viktor Orbán's era is over — and Hungary's next prime minister is already in a hurry. A mass shooting in Kyiv raises the spectre of Russian-directed terrorism inside Ukraine's cities. Iran shuts the Strait of Hormuz for a second time. And the continent's far right gathers in Milan on the very weekend it loses its most powerful ally in government. This is Europa Daily.

Host: We begin in Budapest, where the political landscape has shifted with extraordinary speed. Péter Magyar and his Tisza party have won a dramatic landslide victory in Hungary's elections, ending Viktor Orbán's long grip on power. The BBC reports that Orbán's era was over, as they put it, 'in a flash' — and Magyar is wasting no time preparing for the transfer of power. This is a man in a hurry. The scale of the result appears to have caught even seasoned observers off guard. Orbán had been the dominant figure in Hungarian politics for well over a decade, reshaping the country's institutions, its media environment, and its posture towards the European Union. Inside the EU, Orbán was the most disruptive force at the table — the leader most willing to wield Hungary's veto to block collective decisions. He held up Ukraine-related measures, challenged rule-of-law conditionality attached to EU funds, and cultivated a relationship with Moscow that put him at odds with the vast majority of his fellow European leaders. His removal from power now opens questions that reach well beyond Hungary's borders. The European Council, where national leaders set the EU's strategic direction, operates by unanimity on many critical issues — meaning a single holdout can paralyse the entire bloc. Orbán made that structural vulnerability his signature tool. With Magyar now preparing to govern, every European capital that found itself blocked or frustrated by Budapest is recalculating. For more on what's happening on the ground, let's go to our correspondent.

Correspondent: What's striking here is the pace. The BBC describes Magyar and the Tisza party as already deep into transition planning — this is not a victory lap, it's an immediate pivot to governing. The landslide was dramatic enough that the result itself seems to have accelerated the timeline. We don't yet have detailed policy declarations from Magyar on his EU or NATO posture, but the sheer fact of Orbán's departure removes the figure who was, more than anyone else, the EU's internal obstacle on a range of stalled dossiers. Hungary under Orbán was the member state most likely to break consensus — on Ukraine support, on migration policy, on the enforcement of democratic standards. What comes next depends on the choices Magyar makes, but the structural dynamic inside the European Council has already changed. Back to you.

Host: Thank you. It's worth underlining: this isn't just a Hungarian story. Orbán's allies across Europe — in Italy, in France, in the Netherlands — have lost the one leader who could translate far-right politics into institutional leverage at the highest level of EU decision-making. We'll come back to that dimension later in the programme when we look at the far-right rally that took place in Milan this very weekend. But first, to Kyiv.

Host: Ukrainian investigators are examining whether a mass shooting in Kyiv was directed by Moscow — a question that, if answered in the affirmative, would mark a significant escalation in the nature of Russia's war against Ukraine. Here's what we know. A fifty-eight-year-old gunman opened fire on passersby in Kyiv's Holosiivskyi district before barricading himself inside a supermarket and taking hostages. Police sealed off the area and attempted to negotiate. He refused, and was killed after a forty-minute standoff. Six people were killed and fourteen wounded. Among the wounded was a twelve-year-old boy whose parents were both among the dead, according to Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko. The Ukraine Security Service, the SBU, has classified the attack as a terrorist act. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said all available information about the attacker and his motives was being 'thoroughly investigated,' adding that 'every detail must be verified.' Local media named the perpetrator as Dmytro Vasylchenkov, a Ukrainian citizen who was born in Moscow. He had previously lived in the Russian city of Ryazan and was a longtime resident of Bakhmut in eastern Donetsk. He had a criminal record, Zelenskyy confirmed. Shootings of this kind are extremely rare in Ukraine. Ukrainian cities endure regular Russian airstrikes, but a street-level gun attack on civilians is something different — and the fact that investigators are actively examining a possible Russian hand makes this more than a criminal case. A woman named Hanna, who identified herself as the suspect's neighbour, told the Guardian he kept to himself. 'He didn't want to communicate with anyone,' she said. Another resident, Lesia Rybzha, said she was shocked: 'I still can't understand why, on top of them killing us with airstrikes, people are being killed on the streets as well.' Separately, the Guardian reports that the Kremlin is dealing with domestic fallout of its own. A celebrity blogger named Victoria Bonya posted a video warning Putin that mounting problems risked spiralling out of control. 'The people are afraid of you, artists are afraid, governors are afraid,' she said. The video has garnered twenty-six million views. Putin's approval ratings have registered their sixth consecutive weekly decline. Some observers have speculated the intervention may have been coordinated with Moscow to signal that public grievances are being heard ahead of parliamentary elections later this year.

Host: Iran has shut the Strait of Hormuz for a second time as nuclear and war negotiations with Washington show limited progress. Iran's top negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said there was still, in his words, 'a big distance' between the two sides, even as Tehran claimed some progress had been made in the talks. President Trump, meanwhile, warned Iran not to 'blackmail' the United States by closing the strait. Tehran, for its part, has slammed what it calls Washington's 'maximalist' positions. The Strait of Hormuz is one of the world's most critical energy chokepoints — roughly a fifth of global oil transits through it. A second closure compounds the pressure on global energy markets at a moment when European economies are still adjusting to the supply disruptions caused by the break with Russian energy. DW reports the closure but the diplomatic picture remains murky: both sides are talking, but neither side appears close to a deal.

Host: And finally, to Milan — where several thousand people gathered for a large rally attended by European far-right leaders who spoke against immigration, on security, and against EU regulations. France 24 reports the event brought together figures from across the continent in a show of pan-European coordination by the populist right. The rally is significant on its own terms — it demonstrates that the far right continues to organise across borders, with shared messaging and mutual legitimisation between national movements. But the timing makes it especially striking. This gathering took place the same weekend that Viktor Orbán lost power in Hungary. And Orbán was not just another sympathetic voice for the European far right — he was its most powerful institutional asset. As Hungary's prime minister, he sat in the European Council. He could — and did — block EU legislation, hold up funding decisions, and veto collective action. No rally, however large, can replicate that kind of leverage. The far-right movement in Europe now has to reckon with the loss of its strongest lever inside EU decision-making. The network remains active — the Milan rally is proof of that. But there is a meaningful difference between mobilising supporters in a piazza and wielding a national veto in Brussels. Orbán's defeat forces a recalculation of where the movement's real power base lies.

Host: That's Europa Daily. The Hungarian parliament hasn't even convened yet, but the recalculations are already well underway — in Brussels, in Moscow, and in Milan. We'll be tracking all of it. Until next time.

• DW World: Iran war: Tehran says 'progress' made in talks with US
• The Guardian Europe: Ukraine war briefing: search for motive after gunman kills six in Kyiv
• The Guardian Europe: Investigators examine whether Ukraine terrorist attack was directed by Russia
• DW World: Iran war: Trump says Tehran cannot 'blackmail us'
• France 24 Europe: Europe's far right leaders gather in Milan rally against immigration
• BBC Europe: Orbán's era was over in a flash and Hungary's next PM is a man in a hurry

Host: Iran says the Strait of Hormuz is open — but only for as long as the ceasefire holds. France and Britain have gathered fifty nations to plan what comes next: a multinational naval force to keep the world's most important oil chokepoint clear. Italy's Meloni joins the coalition — and in doing so, breaks with Donald Trump. From the Gulf to the Belarusian border to the politics of Europe's energy market, this is Europa Daily.

Host: Iran has announced that the Strait of Hormuz will reopen to commercial shipping for the duration of the ceasefire — but it has also vowed to close the waterway again unless the United States lifts its blockade. That conditional reopening has triggered a burst of European diplomatic activity. French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer co-hosted a video conference with representatives from fifty countries to discuss the possible deployment of a multinational naval force to the strait once the war in Iran is over. Macron welcomed Iran's announcement but called for the strait's 'unconditional' reopening — a signal that Europe does not accept Tehran's leverage over the waterway. Joining Macron and Starmer on the call were Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. The coalition they are assembling is notable: co-led by France and Britain, backed by Germany and Italy, and explicitly described as a force of nonbelligerent states. The mission would not deploy before the Iran war ends, but the planning is already underway. This is a rare case of major European powers coordinating a potential military deployment outside NATO command structures, driven by a shared vulnerability: Europe's dependence on oil that transits through Hormuz.

Correspondent: One of the most striking interventions on the call came from Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The Ukrainian president told the fifty-nation conference that Ukraine had already carried out a very similar mission in the Black Sea. He pointed to Ukraine's experience escorting merchant vessels, demining, defending against air attacks, and coordinating complex naval operations — all developed over four years of war with Russia. Zelenskyy said Ukraine had sent specialists throughout the Middle East to help countries benefit from its experience defending against Russian drones, many of which were designed in Iran. He offered that expertise to the Hormuz coalition, saying 'we can also contribute to maritime security.' He also framed the stakes in broader terms: 'Decisions made regarding Hormuz now will determine how other aggressive actors perceive the possibility of creating problems in other straits and on other fronts.' He urged the coalition to be 'as specific and clear as possible' so that in six months the situation would not resemble Gaza, 'where much still needs to be done.' Ukraine has already clinched security cooperation agreements with Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, and says it is in talks with Oman, Kuwait, and Bahrain. So Zelenskyy is linking the Hormuz crisis directly to the war in Ukraine — and positioning Kyiv as a contributor, not just a supplicant.

Host: Giorgia Meloni's presence on that Hormuz call is itself a story. Italy's prime minister has been the EU leader closest to Donald Trump, but the war in Iran and a public clash between Trump and the Pope have forced her to choose sides — and she has chosen Europe. According to DW, Meloni has broken with Trump over both the Iran war and the Pope, potentially pushing her to align with Europe's centre-right rather than the transatlantic populist axis she had cultivated. That is a significant shift. For two years, the Meloni-Orbán alignment has shaped EU summit dynamics, providing a counterweight to the Franco-German centre on issues from migration to foreign policy. If Meloni moves towards Macron and Merz, the balance inside the European Council changes. Former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has weighed in forcefully. Speaking to France 24, Renzi denounced what he called Trump's 'global chaos' and attacked the populism of both Orbán and Meloni. He offered what the network described as an in-depth reading of European cohesion and leadership ethics, marked by a tension between pragmatism and principle — criticising shifting allegiances while, at times, cautiously endorsing them. Renzi's framing sets up a contest over what kind of Europe emerges from this crisis: one still tethered to Washington's lead, or one acting more independently on its own strategic interests. Meloni's pivot does not resolve that question, but it removes the most prominent European voice that had been defending close alignment with the Trump administration on Iran.

Host: To the east, Volodymyr Zelenskyy says intelligence shows Russia is trying to bring Belarus back into the war. The Ukrainian president, citing a report from his top commander Oleksandr Syrskyi, said that road construction in areas leading to Ukraine and the establishment of artillery positions are underway in the Belarusian border area. 'We believe that Russia will once again try to involve Belarus in its war,' Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram. He said Ukraine had issued instructions to warn the Belarusian leadership of Ukraine's readiness to defend its land and independence. Zelenskyy also said intelligence showed Russia was attempting to regroup forces, most likely to compensate for a shortage of personnel, which he said made the increased military activity on Belarusian territory more understandable. Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko, one of Vladimir Putin's closest allies, allowed his territory to be used for part of Russia's February 2022 invasion. A reopened northern front would directly concern Poland and the Baltic states, which border Belarus. Separately, Serbia's NIS oil company — majority-owned by Russia's Gazprom Neft and Gazprom — has secured a sixty-day sanctions waiver from the United States. NIS operates Serbia's only oil refinery, and the waiver allows it to continue importing crude oil while negotiations proceed on the sale of the Russian majority stake to Hungary's MOL. The previous one-month waiver expired on Friday. The US imposed sanctions on NIS last October as part of wider measures targeting Russia's energy sector and demanded divestment of the Russian owners. Serbian energy minister Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic called the latest waiver a sign of progress in the ownership negotiations between MOL and Gazprom Neft. So the sanctions architecture built to pressure Moscow is now shaping corporate deals between Budapest and Belgrade — with Washington holding the clock.

Host: Now to a fight inside the EU that the Hormuz crisis has brought into sharp relief. Former EU Commissioner Thierry Breton — who ran the internal market portfolio from 2019 to 2024 — has called it 'totally unfair' that certain EU member states are making money from the energy crunch. Speaking to France 24, Breton took aim at countries profiting from the squeeze triggered by the Hormuz disruption and ongoing Russian supply problems, while other member states pay crisis prices. The accusation is pointed. The same global energy shock hits all twenty-seven EU members, but countries with spare LNG terminal capacity or domestic production are in a position to capture windfall revenues. Countries without that infrastructure absorb the pain. Breton is no longer in office, but he remains a prominent voice — and one with a particular edge. He and four other figures were hit with US travel bans at the end of last year for their roles in regulating big tech, prompting Breton to denounce what he called 'a wind of McCarthyism blowing again.' His willingness to speak bluntly has not diminished. The fairness question he raises echoes the bitter fights of 2022 over gas-price caps, when EU member states split sharply over whether and how to intervene in energy markets. The dynamic is familiar: countries with infrastructure and supply advantages resist market interventions, while those exposed to price spikes demand solidarity. Britain faces the same global price pressures but sits outside the EU's market-intervention toolkit — a concrete consequence of being outside the single market. For EU members, the question is whether the Commission will move towards emergency energy-market interventions, and whether the political will exists to override the interests of those member states currently benefiting from the crunch. Breton's intervention is designed to force that debate into the open.

Host: That's Europa Daily. The strait is open — conditionally. The coalition is forming — cautiously. And the energy bills keep arriving — unconditionally. We'll be back with more tomorrow.

• DW World: Iran vows to close Strait of Hormuz if US blockade continues
• The Guardian Europe: Ukraine war briefing: Russia seeking to bring Belarus back into the war, says Zelenskyy
• France 24 Europe: Renzi urges ‘European strategy’, denounces Trump's ‘global chaos’ and populism of Orbán and Meloni
• DW World: As Strait of Hormuz reopens, Europe looks to secure shipping
• France 24 Europe: 'Totally unfair' that EU countries making money on energy crunch: Former EU commissioner Breton
• France 24 Europe: Macron, Meloni, Starmer and Merz welcome Hormuz Strait reopening
• DW World: Italy's Meloni breaks with Trump over war in Iran, pope
• France 24 Europe: Europe welcomes Hormuz Strait reopening

Host: Six weeks. That's how much jet fuel Europe may have left if Gulf supplies stay blocked. Today: the continent's aviation emergency. A ninety-billion-euro lifeline for Ukraine as Russian missiles rain down. The fallout from Orbán's defeat, rippling from Budapest to Westminster. And the end of a 44-year manhunt. This is Europa Daily.

Host: Europe may have roughly six weeks of jet fuel remaining. That stark warning comes from the International Energy Agency, which says flights could soon be cancelled if supplies from the Gulf remain blocked. The agency did not mince words — if the blockage continues, cancellations are not a theoretical risk but an operational one, affecting airlines and airports across the continent.

Correspondent: The IEA's warning is unusually blunt. The disruption stems from Gulf supply routes being blocked, tied to the wider conflict in the region. The IEA is effectively saying that unless those supply lines reopen, European aviation faces real, tangible disruption within weeks.

Host: And the root cause — the disruption of Middle Eastern energy flows — is the same crisis feeding directly into the next story on our agenda today.

Host: The EU expects to begin releasing a new ninety-billion-euro loan to Ukraine in the second quarter. That's according to the bloc's economy commissioner, Valdis Dombrovskis, speaking on the sidelines of the IMF and World Bank spring meetings in Washington. Dombrovskis said support for Ukraine and continued sanctions pressure on Russia were very much part of the agenda. He warned that Moscow is emerging as a winner from the war in Iran because it provides windfall profits to feed Russia's war machine. Germany's vice chancellor, Lars Klingbeil, echoed that assessment. Speaking in Washington alongside the finance ministers of Ukraine and Norway, Klingbeil said the Russian economy was growing thanks to the Middle East conflict and that Russia was profiting from the energy situation. He argued it is not in the interest of the United States that Russia wins from the Iran war — a message aimed squarely at the Trump administration. Klingbeil also stressed the importance of not forgetting Ukraine while the Middle East dominates the agenda. 'All the meetings here are about the question of what's happening with the war in Iran,' he said, 'and I think it's really important we show solidarity with our friends in Ukraine.' That solidarity is being tested on the ground. Russia hammered civilian areas across Ukraine with drones and missiles, killing at least seventeen people and wounding more than a hundred in the worst aerial assault in weeks. Ukrainian authorities said nearly seven hundred drones and dozens of ballistic and cruise missiles were used. Among the dead was a twelve-year-old child. The strikes hit Kyiv, Odesa, and Dnipro. Ukrainian officials said vital stocks of advanced interceptors were running low. Donald Trump, asked for his reaction at the White House, said: 'I think it's terrible.' Meanwhile, the heads of the EU and NATO met to discuss bolstering European arms production. Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said after meeting NATO chief Mark Rutte: 'We need to invest more, to produce more, and to do both faster.' The coalition backing Ukraine extends beyond EU borders — Norway, a non-EU state, stood alongside Germany and Ukraine in Washington.

Host: Viktor Orbán's sixteen years in power were kind to a number of British political figures. That's the assessment from the Guardian, which reports that Orbán's defeat is now threatening to halt Hungarian support that flowed to the harder right of British conservatism. Among those who benefited from the largesse of Orbán's self-styled illiberal democracy: the Tory peer Lord Frost, and Reform UK-linked figures Matt Goodwin and James Orr. All received backing extended by Orbán's ruling Fidesz party, which took a particular liking to those on the harder right of British conservative politics. With that support now in question, the network of British political figures who looked to Budapest for patronage faces an uncertain future.

Host: Finally today, the end of a pursuit that lasted more than four decades. Hicham Harb, now seventy-two years old, has been extradited to France by the Palestinian Authority. He is a suspect in the 1982 attack on the Goldenberg restaurant in Paris — one of France's deadliest post-war antisemitic atrocities, in which six people were killed. Harb was detained on arrival in Paris and is due to face formal proceedings. For France, this is a major moment — both legally and for the families of the victims, who have waited more than forty years for someone to face charges.

Host: That's your briefing. A fuel clock ticking down. A ninety-billion-euro commitment to Ukraine. A populist network losing its patron. And justice delayed by forty-four years finally arriving in Paris. Europa Daily is back tomorrow. Thanks for listening.

• The Guardian Europe: Ukraine war briefing: €90bn EU loan for Ukraine to be released in second quarter
• France 24 Europe: Suspect in 1982 Paris Jewish restaurant attack extradited to France
• BBC Europe: Europe has 'maybe six weeks of jet fuel left', energy boss warns
• The Guardian Europe: Orbán’s defeat threatens to halt Hungarian support of populist right
• DW World: Several killed in Russian strikes across Ukraine, many more injured

Host: The Netherlands pledges nearly three hundred million dollars for drone production — and Russia responds by publishing the addresses of factories across Europe, Britain included. The UK rejoins Erasmus, six years after Brexit pulled it out. A new EU border system is causing three-hour queues at airports from Paris to Athens. And Turkey is shaken by a second school shooting in forty-eight hours. From the heart of Europe, this is Europa Daily.

Host: We start in Berlin, where defence ministers from NATO countries and Ukraine's key supporters gathered for a meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group. Britain was at the table. The headline commitment came from the Netherlands: two hundred and forty-eight million euros — roughly two hundred and ninety-three million dollars — to produce drones for Ukraine. Dutch defence minister Dilan Yesilgöz-Zegerius said drones play a crucial role on the modern battlefield. "Ukrainians deploy them with incredible skill to repel the incessant Russian attacks," she said. She added that close cooperation with Ukraine is allowing the Netherlands to learn directly from the front lines, and that the programme offers opportunities for Dutch industry. The drones will be manufactured in both the Netherlands and Ukraine.

Host: NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte — himself a former Dutch prime minister — used the Berlin meeting to urge allies not to lose sight of the Ukraine conflict, now in its fifth year. He called on alliance members to boost their collective support for Kyiv to sixty billion dollars in 2026. The urgency is sharpened by events in the Middle East. Germany's defence minister warned that Russia, quote, "benefits from current developments" there, and that rising oil prices are filling Moscow's, in his words, "war coffers." Britain echoed that warning. Both the German and British defence ministers flagged the risk that the US-led war against Iran is distracting international attention from Ukraine, at a time when American-led talks to end Europe's deadliest conflict since the Second World War have stalled.

Correspondent: Moscow's response was swift and pointed. Russia's defence ministry said that European plans to step up drone supplies to Ukraine are dragging those countries deeper into a war with Russia. It published a list of factories and enterprises in several European countries that it alleges manufacture drones or drone components — and it gave their addresses. The list includes sites in Britain, Germany, Spain, Italy, Poland, and Israel, among others. So let that land for a moment: the Russian defence ministry has published the physical addresses of facilities on British soil. Moscow said it views the increased production and supply of drones to Ukraine as a step that is escalating the conflict. It is a remarkable piece of intimidation — naming specific facilities in allied countries. Meanwhile, the war on the ground continues with devastating effect. Russian forces attacked Kyiv with missiles, killing a twelve-year-old child, injuring at least ten people including several medics, and setting off a large fire in the Obolon district. A separate Russian strike on an apartment building in the Black Sea port of Odesa killed one person and injured six.

Host: On the Ukrainian side, drones have become central to the war effort. Ukraine's defence ministry said it is introducing a new model of operations that integrates drone warfare with infantry activity. The country's top commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said Kyiv's forces regained control of nearly fifty square kilometres of territory from Russia in March alone, building on gains since the start of the year. A Ukrainian unit told AFP it has carried out more than a hundred attacks on the front using ground robots. A source within the unit described these as systematic combat operations — not isolated incidents — including the elimination of enemy personnel, the destruction of shelters and command posts. The systems allow the replacement of infantry assaults, which can result in soldier deaths, and also help detect and engage targets and prevent enemy infiltrations. President Zelenskyy recently hailed the capture of a Russian position using this method. Both sides have also devoted resources to developing ways to intercept drones and upgrade air defences.

Host: Next — a story that will matter to anyone who was a student in Europe over the past four decades, or who has one in the family now. Britain has signed a deal to rejoin the European Union's Erasmus student exchange programme. It has been six years since Brexit severed British participation in the scheme, which has sent millions of young Europeans to study in other countries since it was founded in 1987. For universities from Lisbon to Tallinn — and from Edinburgh to Exeter — it means the exchange routes are open again in both directions. When Britain left Erasmus, the government set up a replacement called the Turing scheme. But the return to Erasmus signals that the replacement was not considered sufficient. For young people, this is one of the most personally felt consequences of Brexit being reversed — not a trade clause or a regulatory alignment, but the lived experience of spending a term or a year studying in another country.

Host: If you have flown into a European airport recently, you may already know this next story — if not in your bones, then certainly in your aching feet. The EU's new entry-exit system, known as EES, is now live, and it is causing serious disruption. The system requires biometric data and personal information from non-EU travellers entering the Schengen zone. Airports Council International — the body representing the airport industry — says passengers in France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Spain, and Greece are waiting up to three hours at border checks. Three hours. ACI has already asked for the power to suspend EES checks when queues become unmanageable — a remarkable request just weeks into the system's rollout. For anyone with a British passport, this is now the reality every time you land on the continent. You are a non-EU national, and you are subject to these checks. If you were hoping the half-term trip to Barcelona or the long weekend in Paris might go smoothly — well, allow extra time. But the burden falls heavily on the airports themselves, which are struggling to process the volume of travellers through the new biometric requirements. It is a single EU regulation producing simultaneous disruption at borders right across the continent — a stress test for the system's designers and for the patience of millions of travellers.

Host: We turn now to Turkey, where a second school shooting in two days has left the country in shock. According to Interior Minister Mustafa Cifci, eight students and one teacher were killed in the latest attack. That brings the toll from two incidents in forty-eight hours to a level that is almost without precedent in Turkey. Turkey is a NATO ally, an EU candidate country, and home to millions of people with deep family ties across Europe. Germany alone has a Turkish-origin community of roughly three million — the largest diaspora in Europe. Significant Turkish-origin populations also live in the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, and France. For those families, these shootings are not distant news — they are events touching people they know and places many still call home. The details of the attacks remain limited at this stage, and we shall bring you more as the picture becomes clearer.

Host: That is your Europa Daily briefing. Drone factories on a Russian target list — including on British soil. Students heading back to European lecture halls. Airport queues testing continental patience. And grief in Turkey felt far beyond its borders. We are back tomorrow. Until then, stay informed.

• DW World: UK signs deal to rejoin EU's Erasmus exchange scheme
• The Guardian Europe: Ukraine war briefing: Netherlands to spend almost $300m on making drones for Ukraine
• BBC Europe: Nine killed in second Turkish school shooting in two days
• DW World: Germany, the UK warn the Iran war distracts from Ukraine and oil price rises help Russia
• The Guardian Europe: ‘Don’t lose sight of Ukraine,’ Nato chief tells European allies – as it happened
• The Guardian Europe: New EU entry-exit system causing up to three-hour delays, say airports

Host: Viktor Orbán is out — and within days, €90bn frozen for Ukraine is moving again. Rachel Reeves confirms hundreds of millions in weapons payments from London, Norway signs a drone co-production deal with Kyiv, and Germany hosts Zelenskyy to talk drones and EU membership. Meanwhile, Donald Trump publicly attacks Giorgia Meloni for refusing to join strikes on Iran — just as the IMF names Britain the G7 country worst hit by the conflict. Spain prepares to regularise half a million undocumented migrants, and Lufthansa's pilots and cabin crew are striking for a full working week, with cancellations rippling through Heathrow and beyond. This is Europa Daily.

Host: We start with the money — and the politics behind it. Chancellor Rachel Reeves is expected to confirm a £752m payment to Ukraine today, ahead of a meeting with Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Svyrydenko in Washington. That payment is part of a larger £3.36bn loan and is earmarked for weaponry — long-range missiles, air defence systems and drones. It comes at a moment when the financial architecture supporting Ukraine is shifting fast, because the defeat of Viktor Orbán in Hungary's election on Sunday is already producing concrete policy changes well beyond Budapest.

Host: The EU's expansion chief, Marta Kos, speaking on the sidelines of the IMF and World Bank spring meetings, described the Hungarian result as — in her words — a "big win for Europe." Kos said she personally expects the change in government to have a positive effect on Ukraine's EU accession process. Critically, she also said it would help unlock a major loan needed to prop up Ukraine's budget — funds worth some €90bn that Orbán had effectively vetoed. That veto had infuriated other European leaders. Orbán had tied it to a dispute with Ukraine over a damaged pipeline carrying Russian oil. With that blockage now expected to clear, the financial picture for Ukraine's war effort and state budget looks materially different — and the British contribution sits alongside a much larger European commitment.

Correspondent: There's a Nordic dimension to this as well. Norway and Ukraine announced they will strengthen bilateral defence cooperation, including by producing Ukrainian drones on Norwegian territory. Under the agreement, Norway will support drone production inside Ukraine, while Kyiv shares data, information and operational knowledge with Oslo. Norwegian prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre, speaking at a joint press conference with Zelenskyy, put it plainly: "We can learn from the experiences that Ukraine is making in this hard-won fight against Russian aggression. It is crucial that we learn from these experiences." And in Berlin, Chancellor Friedrich Merz hosted Zelenskyy for talks covering EU membership, European involvement in peace negotiations, and a comprehensive bilateral drone deal. So within a single cycle you have the EU loan veto lifting, British weapons money confirmed, a German drone deal under discussion, and Norwegian drone co-production signed. That is a significant acceleration — and it's happening even as Zelenskyy warns that American attention is drifting. He told Germany's public broadcaster ZDF that US peace negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner — whom he described as pragmatic — are "constantly in talks with Iran" and have, in his words, "no time for Ukraine." He warned that if the United States does not put pressure on Putin and only engages in what he called a gentle dialogue with the Russians, then Moscow will no longer be afraid.

Host: One more thread to note: US officials announced an extension of sanctions relief on the Russian oil company Lukoil for fuel stations outside Russia. The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Asset Control said Lukoil-branded stations in countries including the United States can continue to serve customers through late October. The measure allows those stations to conduct transactions in the ordinary course of business — procuring supplies, making insurance payments, processing payroll. The Trump administration is framing it as an effort to mitigate spikes in crude prices — a reminder that energy costs remain a live concern on both sides of the Atlantic.

Host: Now to a rupture that few saw coming — at least not this publicly. Donald Trump has lashed out at one of his closest European allies, accusing Italy's Giorgia Meloni of lacking courage for refusing to join the United States in attacking Iran. "I'm shocked at her. I thought she had courage, but I was wrong," Trump told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The remarks are striking because Meloni has been, until now, Washington's most sympathetic partner among major EU leaders. But the Iran war is forcing choices. Meloni has also suspended Italy's defence agreement with Israel, a move driven by growing domestic pressure over the conflict. The usual alliances are fracturing in real time.

Host: And the economic fallout from the Middle East war is landing unevenly — with Britain taking a particularly sharp hit. The IMF has downgraded UK growth forecasts by half a percentage point compared with its January projection. That makes Britain the biggest loser among the G7 from the Iran war's escalation. The fund has also warned that the conflict could trigger a global recession. Rachel Reeves arrived at the spring meetings in Washington with, as the Guardian put it, little leeway to prove the downgrade wrong. It is a bruising backdrop for a Chancellor already under pressure at home over the fiscal rules. So European governments are being squeezed from two directions at once: pressure from Washington to take sides militarily, and pressure from their own economies — the Treasury in London very much included — as the war pushes up costs and drags down growth.

Host: Spain's government has finalised what it calls an amnesty plan for undocumented migrants — a measure it estimates could enable roughly half a million people to apply for legal status. The Sánchez government hailed the plan as, in its words, "an act of justice and a necessity." Under the measure, unauthorised migrants will be able to apply for temporary residence permits and, crucially, start paying taxes. It is one of the largest regularisation moves in the EU in years.

Host: The decision arrives at a moment when migration policy is dominating political debate in capitals from Berlin to The Hague — and, of course, in Westminster, where the Home Office has been tightening border rules. Spain's argument is essentially economic: regularisation fills labour gaps and broadens the tax base. But the move will be closely watched — and contested — elsewhere. Under EU free-movement rules, newly documented residents could eventually gain the right to work in other member states, which means a decision made in Madrid has implications well beyond Spain's borders. Whether regularisation or enforcement wins the broader European argument is one of the defining political questions of the moment, and Spain has just placed a very large bet on one side of it.

Host: Finally, to a story that will be felt in departure lounges from Heathrow to Helsinki. Lufthansa's pilots are extending their strike action through Thursday and Friday, meaning a full working week of disruption at Europe's largest airline group. The Vereinigung Cockpit trade union confirmed the extension. Cabin crew are also striking this week. The timing is particularly awkward for the airline — it coincides with Lufthansa's centenary celebrations.

Host: Lufthansa is not just a German carrier. The group operates Austrian Airlines, Swiss, Brussels Airlines and Eurowings. Strikes at its Frankfurt and Munich hubs don't stay in Germany — they cascade into cancelled connections right through the network. If you're booked on a connecting flight through Frankfurt or Munich this week — and plenty of routes from Heathrow and Manchester run through those hubs — it is well worth checking your flight status. Feeder routes, onward bookings, business travel and tourism flows all take a hit when Europe's dominant hub-and-spoke system seizes up at its centre. A hundred years old, and the birthday party has been rather thoroughly spoilt.

Host: That is your Europa Daily briefing. A Hungarian election unlocking billions for Ukraine — with British money part of the picture. Trump publicly breaking with Meloni over Iran, while the IMF delivers a sobering verdict on the UK economy. Spain betting big on migrant regularisation. And Lufthansa grounded for the week. We're back tomorrow. Thanks for listening.

• The Guardian Europe: Ukraine war briefing: Orbán’s defeat in Hungary could unlock €90bn loan for Ukraine, says EU official
• DW World: Germany, Ukraine discuss drone deal as Merz hosts Zelenskyy
• DW World: Spain: Sanchez government finalizes amnesty plan for undocumented migrants
• DW World: Lufthansa pilots to strike again for 2 more days, leading to a full working week of disruption
• Sky News World: Spain finalises move which could see 500,000 undocumented migrants apply for legal status
• The Guardian Europe: Reeves arrives at IMF with little leeway to prove its UK downgrade wrong
• The Guardian Europe: Trump accuses ally Meloni of lacking courage for not joining attacks on Iran

Host: Hungary wakes up to a new political era — and so does the European Council. Péter Magyar's landslide over Viktor Orbán is already sending signals on Ukraine aid, Russian energy, and the end of Budapest's veto diplomacy. Plus: the EU doubles steel tariffs to fifty per cent, a US naval blockade of Iran threatens another energy-price shock, and a deadly Swiss bar fire raises hard questions about safety in Europe's ski resorts. This is Europa Daily.

Host: We begin in Budapest, where Péter Magyar's landslide victory over Viktor Orbán in Sunday's legislative elections marks what France 24 calls a seismic shift — not just for Hungary, but for the European Union as a whole. After sixteen years of Orbán's rule, the opposition has taken power, and hopes are rising in Brussels that Budapest may finally abandon the obstructionist course that has defined its European diplomacy for years.

Magyar wasted no time. At his first press conference after the win, he addressed the question everyone in European capitals was asking: what happens with Russia and Ukraine? On Vladimir Putin, Magyar struck a careful but unmistakable tone. Quote: "If Vladimir Putin calls, I'll pick up the phone. If we did talk, I could tell him that it would be nice to end the killing after four years and end the war." He added, with notable realism: "It would probably be a short phone conversation and I don't think he would end the war on my advice." He said he would talk to the Russian president but would not initiate contact.

On energy, Magyar said he plans to review Hungary's Russian energy contracts and renegotiate them if needed — a direct departure from Orbán, who had deepened Hungary's dependence on Russian oil and gas even as the rest of the continent moved to cut ties.

The immediate consequence that matters most to Kyiv: Ukraine welcomed the defeat of Orbán with relief, because it paves the way for a ninety-billion-euro loan that Ukraine urgently needs to fund the war with Russia. Orbán's Hungary had been the most persistent obstacle to collective EU action on Ukraine — blocking or delaying aid packages, sanctions enforcement, and rule-of-law mechanisms. A cooperative Budapest changes the arithmetic in the European Council overnight.

Correspondent: Brussels is cautiously optimistic but not uncritical. France 24 reports that the EU may need to temper its enthusiasm — on the rule of law, migration, and LGBTQ rights, the road ahead is, in their words, neither straight nor guaranteed. Lukáš Macek, director of the Greater Europe project at the Jacques Delors Centre, told France 24 that on Ukraine specifically, the new Hungarian government is likely to stop obstructing aid and will be — and this is his phrase — "a tough partner, but a partner nonetheless" on the question of Ukrainian accession to the EU. That distinction matters. Magyar is not signalling a wholesale adoption of Brussels' positions. But the shift from outright obstruction to difficult partnership is significant for Council dynamics — particularly on foreign policy, where unanimity is required and a single veto can paralyse the entire bloc. DW reports that hopes are rising in Brussels that Budapest may abandon its obstructionist course, though the details of what Magyar will actually deliver remain to be tested at the next Council summit.

Host: It's worth underlining what was at stake. For four years, Hungary under Orbán was the most visible internal challenge to EU cohesion on foreign policy. The ninety-billion-euro Ukraine loan, enlargement talks with Kyiv, sanctions enforcement — all of these ran through Budapest's veto. The removal of that obstacle doesn't resolve every disagreement in the European Council, but it does change the political landscape fundamentally. We'll be watching closely for Magyar's first moves in Brussels.

Host: Turning to trade. EU lawmakers and member states have agreed to double tariffs on foreign steel to fifty per cent — the sharpest protectionist move in the bloc's recent trade history. The deal also slashes duty-free import volumes by forty-seven per cent, a dramatic tightening aimed squarely at curbing the surge of cheap Chinese steel flooding European ports.

The decision came with a blunt warning from EU trade chief Maroš Šefčovič, who said global overcapacity threatens Europe's industrial strength. That overcapacity is not abstract — it's measured in tonnes of Chinese steel that have been redirected towards European markets, in part because US tariffs have already closed off the American route.

For steelmakers from northern France and the Ruhr valley to Košice in Slovakia and Taranto in Italy, this is the protection they've been demanding. But for downstream manufacturers — in automotive, construction, shipbuilding — higher steel input costs are now a reality they'll need to absorb or pass on.

Brussels is now running its own tariff wall on steel whilst navigating a broader trade confrontation with Beijing that spans electric vehicles, subsidies, and market access. The fifty per cent tariff sends a clear signal about where the bloc's priorities lie — but the internal tensions between steel-producing and steel-consuming industries are far from resolved.

Host: Now to the Middle East, where the US blockade of ships using Iranian ports in the Gulf has come into effect — turning the six-week-old conflict between the US-Israeli coalition and Iran into what the Guardian calls a test of economic endurance.

US Central Command made no formal announcement of the start of the blockade but had said it would begin on Monday at half past five in the afternoon, Iranian time. It applies to any ships entering or departing Iranian ports or coastal areas, whilst ships using non-Iranian ports would not be impeded.

Iran has already warned Americans they face higher pump prices as a result. And the ripple effects are reaching well beyond the Gulf. Ukraine's central bank governor, Andriy Pyshnyi, said that higher oil prices caused by the war in the Middle East could raise inflation rates in Ukraine by one-and-a-half to two-point-eight percentage points. Pyshnyi said the central bank would stick to its target of lowering inflation to five per cent in three years, using all available tools — but acknowledged the difficulty. Quote: "We're trying to walk on a razorblade."

For Europe more broadly, the blockade arrives at a moment when energy costs were finally easing after years of post-invasion disruption. A sustained rise in global oil prices would complicate the inflation picture for the European Central Bank and the Bank of England alike, and hit hardest in southern and eastern European economies where energy costs consume a larger share of household budgets. The diplomatic dimension is equally fraught — European foreign-policy chiefs now face decisions about alignment with Washington, protection of European shipping interests, and the continent's own posture towards Tehran.

Host: Finally, to Switzerland, and a story that cuts to the heart of how Europe's cross-border tourism economy is regulated — or, in this case, not regulated.

The mayor of Crans-Montana, Nicolas Feraud, said on Monday that he was unaware safety checks had not been conducted for six years at the ski resort bar where a New Year's Eve fire killed forty-one people. Forty-one people — in a single bar, in one of Europe's most famous Alpine resorts.

Prosecutors are now investigating the blaze. Nine people, including Mayor Feraud himself, are under criminal investigation over the disaster. The central question is devastating in its simplicity: how did safety inspections at a busy, internationally marketed venue lapse for six years without anyone in authority noticing or acting?

The forty-one victims came from across Europe — Swiss, French, British, Dutch, and other nationals, drawn to a resort that sells itself to an international clientele. Crans-Montana, like dozens of Alpine destinations in Switzerland, France, Italy, and Austria, operates within a deeply cross-border economy. Workers cross frontiers, investors hold properties across multiple jurisdictions, insurers underwrite risks that span national boundaries, and guests arrive from every corner of the continent.

Yet safety regulation in these resorts remains stubbornly local — in Switzerland's case, organised at the cantonal and sometimes municipal level. The Crans-Montana fire raises the question of whether that patchwork is adequate for venues that function, in practice, as international hospitality businesses. When a bar in a Swiss resort draws guests from half a dozen countries, the consequences of a regulatory failure are not confined to one municipality or one canton.

The criminal investigation is ongoing, and the full picture of what went wrong will take time to emerge. But the fact that a mayor can say, credibly or otherwise, that he simply did not know inspections had lapsed for six years — that alone suggests a system with serious blind spots. For the families of the forty-one people who died on New Year's Eve, the question of who was responsible, and who should have been watching, is now a matter for the courts.

Host: That is Europa Daily for today. A new government in Budapest, a tariff wall going up around European steel, a naval blockade tightening in the Gulf, and forty-one families still waiting for answers in the Swiss Alps. We'll be back tomorrow. Thanks for listening.

• France 24 Europe: Crans-Montana mayor says unaware of six-year safety lapse before Swiss bar fire that killed 41
• The Guardian Europe: Ukraine war briefing: Hungary’s new leader says he would ask Putin to end the killing in Ukraine
• The Guardian Europe: US starts naval blockade of Iranian ports after deadline passes
• France 24 Europe: EU doubles steel tariffs to 50% to curb surge of cheap Chinese imports
• DW World: EU applauds Hungary’s election result
• France 24 Europe: Orban ousted: What Magyar’s victory means for Hungary and the EU
• France 24 Europe: Hungary will be "a tough partner, but a partner" on Ukraine, expert says

Host: Sixteen years of Viktor Orbán — over in a single night. Hungary's voters hand Péter Magyar a supermajority, and the reverberations are already reaching Brussels, Kyiv, and Washington. The Easter truce on the front line collapses under thousands of violations. European allies quietly build the case for defence without America. And in the Netherlands, an entire village may be demolished — for a power substation. From London, this is Europa Daily.

Host: We begin in Budapest, where the political earthquake that many thought impossible has happened. Péter Magyar, a 45-year-old former insider who broke with the ruling establishment, has led his Tisza party to a landslide victory in Hungary's parliamentary elections, ending Viktor Orbán's 16-year grip on power. Orbán conceded defeat less than three hours after polls closed, describing the result as — in his words — 'painful but unambiguous.' Thousands flooded the streets of Budapest as Magyar declared victory. His Tisza party has secured a comfortable majority in Hungary's 199-seat legislature — by multiple accounts, a supermajority — opening the door for meaningful reforms of a system that critics said had subverted democratic norms. Magyar, once a figure within Hungary's political establishment, built his campaign on the frustrations of voters weary of economic stagnation, international isolation, and what many saw as oligarchs amassing wealth under Orbán's watch. Orbán, now 62, had been fêted by conservatives on both sides of the Atlantic as the architect of what he proudly called 'illiberal democracy.' That model attracted admirers and imitators well beyond Hungary's borders — not least among parts of the British and American right, where Orbán's culture-war playbook and his closeness to Donald Trump made him something of a lodestar. But at home, the shine had worn off. The scale of the defeat is striking. France 24 described the result as one set to 'reverberate across global far-right movements.' The Guardian called it a result likely to 'rattle the White House and reshape the country's relationship with the EU.' Magyar himself told jubilant supporters simply: 'We have done it.'

Correspondent: The immediate question in Brussels is what this means for the European Council. Orbán repeatedly frustrated EU efforts to support Ukraine in its war against Russia's full-scale invasion. He cultivated close ties to Vladimir Putin and refused to end Hungary's dependence on Russian energy imports. He blocked and delayed EU aid packages for Kyiv and wielded Hungary's veto on sanctions and defence matters. With Magyar's pro-European Tisza party now holding a supermajority, the expectation is that Hungary's posture inside EU institutions shifts fundamentally. Volodymyr Zelenskyy moved quickly, congratulating Magyar on what he called a 'resounding victory' and pledging to work with Hungary's new leadership — his words — 'for the benefit of both nations, as well as peace, security, and stability in Europe.' The EU will be watching closely to see how Magyar changes Hungary's approach to Ukraine. What's already clear is that the arithmetic in the European Council — the table where heads of government make the biggest calls on foreign policy and defence — has changed overnight.

Host: It is worth pausing on the sheer breadth of European business that Hungary's veto habit had stalled or complicated. Sanctions on Russia, military aid for Ukraine, rule-of-law conditionality, the release of frozen EU funds — all of these ran through Budapest's blocking power. A cooperative Hungarian government doesn't resolve every disagreement among 27 member states, but it removes the single most persistent obstacle to collective action on the issues that have dominated European politics since 2022. France 24 put it plainly: this vote is set to reshape Hungary's ties with the EU. For the other 26 governments — and for partners like Britain, which coordinates closely on Ukraine sanctions and defence — that reshaping begins now.

Host: From Hungary's transformation to the war that has defined European security for more than four years. The 32-hour Orthodox Easter ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine has expired, and the numbers tell the story of how fragile it was. Ukraine's general staff recorded 2,299 ceasefire violations by Sunday morning, including assaults, shelling, and small drone launches. It noted that long-range drones, missiles, and guided bombs had not been used during the truce period. A Ukrainian military officer told the Associated Press that Russian forces had continued to attack Ukrainian positions throughout. Russia's defence ministry, for its part, recorded 1,971 violations by Ukrainian forces, including drone strikes. The head of Russia's Belgorod region said rescuers had uncovered the bodies of two civilians killed in a Ukrainian attack on Saturday afternoon. Both sides had agreed to observe the ceasefire. Vladimir Putin ordered it on Thursday; Zelenskyy had proposed it more than a week earlier. But as with a similar agreement last year, only relative calm reigned along the 1,200-kilometre front line. The Kremlin's spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, confirmed that Russian troops still need to take control of what he described as 17 to 18 per cent of Ukraine's disputed Donetsk region. Russian forces, he said, would continue fighting after the truce ended. Britain remains one of Ukraine's leading military backers, and tens of thousands of Ukrainians have settled here under the Homes for Ukraine scheme — a reminder that this war's consequences are felt in communities from Donetsk to Doncaster. Zelenskyy, meanwhile, wasted no time connecting the Hungarian result to the war effort, congratulating Magyar and signalling readiness for 'joint constructive work' — a pointed contrast to years of obstruction from Budapest. Whether Magyar's government changes that dynamic in practice is now one of the most consequential questions in European foreign policy.

Host: The collapse of the Easter truce feeds into a broader strategic conversation that is accelerating across European capitals: what happens if the United States is no longer a reliable security partner? Alexandre Vautravers, an associate fellow at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, frames the current moment as one of 'cautious autonomisation.' Speaking to France 24, Vautravers argued that the real challenges lie not in rhetoric but in the technical, logistical, and strategic underpinnings of the NATO alliance — specifically, interoperability across US and European forces. His assessment is that Europe is entering a structural phase of building military capacity that no longer assumes a dependable American commitment. The trigger, as Vautravers describes it, is an unpredictable US ally that has increasingly adopted what he calls 'highly confrontational policies towards allies and adversaries across the globe.' Trump's incendiary rhetoric, he says, fuels 'chaos and confusion' — but the deeper issue is what that unpredictability means for alliance planning, procurement, and command structures. Britain sits at a particular hinge point in this debate — deeply embedded in NATO's command architecture, a leading European military power, yet outside the EU's own emerging defence initiatives. The question of how British capability fits into a more self-reliant European defence posture is live in Whitehall as much as it is in Paris or Berlin. This is not a new debate, but the framing has shifted. The question is no longer whether European countries should spend more on defence — that argument is largely settled. The question now is how to build genuine operational capacity that works across borders, and how to do it fast enough to matter. Every European country's security posture depends, in part, on what its neighbours decide to spend and build.

Host: We turn now to a story that is small in geography but enormous in what it represents. The Dutch village of Moerdijk has been earmarked for demolition — not for a motorway, not for a housing development, but to make way for a vast electricity substation. The BBC reports that the village faces removal to accommodate the infrastructure that the energy transition demands. It is a stark, human-scale illustration of what decarbonisation actually costs — not in billions of euros on a spreadsheet, but in homes, communities, and the lives of people who happen to live where the grid needs to grow. The Netherlands sits at a critical junction in north-west Europe's interconnected electricity network. Power generated by offshore wind farms in the North Sea needs somewhere to land, and it needs substations to convert and distribute it. Moerdijk is where the engineers say one of those substations has to go. This is not a uniquely Dutch problem. Anyone following the rows over pylons and substations in East Anglia and Kent — where new connections for offshore wind have met fierce local opposition — will recognise the pattern instantly. Plans are drawn up for essential infrastructure; local residents push back; and governments face the uncomfortable reality that clean-energy targets require building on a massive scale, in places where people already live. What makes the Moerdijk case particularly vivid is the totality of it — an entire village, not just a field or a stretch of coastline, but a place where people have built their lives. The tension between continental energy goals and local consent is one of the defining political challenges of the transition. And it is a tension that does not resolve itself. Every substation that gets delayed or blocked has consequences beyond the village in question, because Europe's electricity market is physically interconnected. Power flows across borders. A bottleneck in one country constrains supply and affects prices in neighbouring states. Moerdijk is a Dutch story. But the infrastructure challenge it represents belongs to the entire continent.

Host: That is Europa Daily for today. A new era in Budapest, a ceasefire that barely held, a continent rethinking its own defence, and a village that may disappear so the lights can stay on. We'll be back tomorrow. Until then — thanks for listening.

• BBC Europe: Orbán era swept away by Péter Magyar's Hungary election landslide
• The Guardian Europe: Hungarian opposition ousts Viktor Orbán after 16 years in power
• The Guardian Europe: Thousands celebrate in Hungary as Péter Magyar ends Viktor Orbán's 16-year rule – video
• The Guardian Europe: Ukraine war briefing: Easter truce expires as both sides accuse the other of violations
• France 24 Europe: Russia–Ukraine Easter truce expires amid mutual accusations of violations
• BBC Europe: The Dutch village at risk of being demolished
• France 24 Europe: Hungary ousts Orbán as Magyar's party wins supermajority in parliament
• France 24 Europe: Trump's incendiary rhetoric fuels 'chaos and confusion', driving NATO allies toward self-reliance

Host: Hungarians are voting in an election that could end Viktor Orbán's sixteen-year hold on power — with a US vice president's rally appearance still ringing in voters' ears. Russia's Easter ceasefire collapses within hours. Ireland's fuel crisis forces an emergency cabinet meeting. And Germany's far right goes further than ever. This is Europa Daily.

Host: We start in Hungary, where voters are heading to the polls in what is shaping up to be the most competitive election the country has seen in more than a decade. Most polls favour Péter Magyar, who leads the grassroots Tisza party, but Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has been in a defiant mood. Magyar has emerged as the biggest threat to Orbán's grip on power since Fidesz swept to office in 2010. Orbán is currently on his fourth consecutive term. The question now is whether Hungarians will decide his time is up. This election matters well beyond Hungary's borders. Orbán has been a singular figure inside the European Union — a leader who has blocked Ukraine aid, cultivated relationships with both Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, and served as an inspiration for hard-right movements from Italy to the Netherlands. A change in Budapest would alter the dynamics of the EU Council on defence, rule-of-law conditionality, and billions in frozen cohesion funds. And then there is the American dimension. Just days before the vote, US Vice President JD Vance appeared at a rally for Orbán in Budapest. He endorsed the prime minister and phoned Donald Trump from the stage. Vance told the crowd: 'I am here for a simple reason. Because I admire what you are fighting for. You are fighting for your freedom, for your sovereignty, and I am here because President Trump and I wish for your success and we are fighting right here with you.' That appearance turned the US-European populist pipeline into an explicit campaign issue. As the Guardian's Flora Garamvölgyi put it, Hungary has been a model for the Trump presidency for some time. US Republicans have looked at Hungary as a template to follow — studying Orbán's success on issues like immigration, where the two sides share similar narratives and ideologies. But it is unclear whether Trump's endorsement will actually help Orbán at the ballot box. DW reports that the European hard right has struggled with Trump's recent anti-Europe policies and threats, and the question of how much sway Trump really has over Hungarian voters remains open. For our correspondent segment, let's go to our reporter who has been following the campaign.

Correspondent: What's striking about this election is how personal the challenge has become. Péter Magyar built the Tisza party from the ground up as a grassroots movement, and he has drawn level with or overtaken Fidesz in most opinion polls — something no opposition figure has managed since Orbán consolidated power. Orbán himself remains defiant, showing no sign of conceding the race is close. The Economist's Vendeline Von Bredow, who has been covering the campaign, notes the intensity of the contest. And the Vance rally added an extraordinary international layer — a sitting US vice president openly campaigning for a European incumbent. The question voters are answering is straightforward: after sixteen years, is it time for a change? But the implications run through every EU capital.

Host: We'll be watching the results closely. Polls close this evening, and whatever the outcome, the fact that Orbán faces a genuinely competitive race for the first time in over a decade is itself a significant moment — for Hungary and for the wider European political landscape.

Host: To Ukraine now, where Russia's self-declared Orthodox Easter ceasefire has collapsed. The Kremlin announced a thirty-two-hour truce, but within hours Ukraine documented four hundred and sixty-nine violations. Russian drone attacks struck Odesa and Kherson — deadly strikes that continued even after the ceasefire was supposed to have taken effect. A Ukrainian military officer, Serhii Kolesnychenko, a communications officer for the 148th Separate Artillery Brigade, was blunt. He said: 'The ceasefire is not being observed by the Russian side.' Both sides now accuse each other of breaking the truce. Sky News reports the mutual accusations have collapsed any diplomatic goodwill the gesture was intended to generate. The pattern is familiar — Moscow announces a ceasefire, fighting continues, and the episode becomes another data point in the argument over whether negotiation or military pressure is the only language that changes Russian behaviour. For European governments that had cautiously noted the ceasefire announcement, the collapse renews pressure on air-defence commitments and arms deliveries to Kyiv. The drone strikes on Odesa and Kherson — both cities that have suffered repeated attacks — underscore the ongoing threat to Ukrainian civilian infrastructure.

Host: In Ireland, a fuel crisis is now in its fifth day, and the government has been forced into emergency mode. Hundreds of petrol stations across the Republic have run out of fuel after sustained blockades of fuel depots by protesters. The Irish cabinet is meeting to discuss the crisis. There is some relief: fuel tankers have regained access to at least one oil refinery that had been blocked by protesters, according to Sky News. But the disruption has been severe. The BBC reports hundreds of stations running dry, with the blockades showing no sign of a comprehensive resolution even as partial access is restored. Ireland imports virtually all of its refined fuel, and the blockades have exposed just how quickly supply chains can buckle when depot access is cut off. The crisis has echoes of the fuel protests that have periodically disrupted European countries — the UK fuel crisis of 2000, France's gilets jaunes movement — raising the recurring question of how democracies handle direct-action disruption of critical infrastructure. For Northern Ireland, which shares road networks and some supply infrastructure with the Republic, the situation is being watched closely. Any prolonged disruption south of the border has the potential to create knock-on effects in the north.

Host: Finally to Germany, where two stories are compounding uncertainty in Europe's largest economy. First, the far-right Alternative for Germany — the AfD — has adopted what observers are calling its most radical manifesto yet. The BBC reports the party is riding high in opinion polls in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, where key elections are approaching. The manifesto's Eurosceptic and anti-migration planks matter well beyond Germany's borders. The AfD's rise reshapes coalition arithmetic in Berlin, and coalition arithmetic in Berlin drives EU fiscal policy, defence spending, and migration policy. Every percentage point the AfD gains narrows the options available to mainstream parties trying to form governing coalitions — and that has consequences for every member state that depends on German leadership in Brussels. Separately, Lufthansa pilots have announced a two-day strike after what their union described as no discernible willingness on Lufthansa's part to reach a solution in several collective bargaining disputes. The walkout will ripple well beyond Germany. Lufthansa Group operates Swiss International Air Lines, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, and Eurowings. That means cancellations and disruption at hubs from Zurich to Vienna to Brussels, and on routes connecting to airports across the continent, including in the UK. For travellers, the practical advice is straightforward: check your booking. For the broader European aviation network, a two-day strike at one of the continent's largest carriers creates cascading delays and rebooking pressure that smaller airlines and regional airports are rarely equipped to absorb smoothly. Two very different stories — one about the political direction of Germany's democracy, the other about an industrial dispute in its flagship airline — but both with immediate cross-border consequences.

Host: That's Europa Daily. Polls close in Hungary this evening — we'll have the results and what they mean for the rest of the continent first thing. Until then, thanks for listening.

• DW World: Hungary election: Peter Magyar challenges long-time leader Viktor Orban
• BBC Europe: Hungarians decide whether to end 16 years of Orbán rule and elect rival
• Sky News World: Ukraine and Russia accuse each other of violating Easter ceasefire
• BBC Europe: Irish cabinet meeting to be held to discuss ongoing fuel protests
• The Guardian Europe: Is this the end of Viktor Orbán’s regime? - podcast
• The Guardian Europe: Russian drone attacks persist despite Kremlin’s Easter ceasefire, Ukrainian forces say
• DW World: How much sway does Trump have over Hungarian voters?
• BBC Europe: Germany's far-right AfD adopts 'radical' manifesto ahead of key polls
• Sky News World: Fuel tankers regain access to Irish oil refinery after protests
• France 24 Europe: Hungary: Tracking the campaign
• DW World: Germany: Lufthansa pilots' union call for two-day strike

Host: Hungary votes in its most important election since the fall of communism — and every European capital is watching. Fuel protests jump from Ireland to Norway as airports warn of systemic jet-fuel shortages within weeks. The Home Office starts stripping post-Brexit residency rights from EU citizens, using the same data that caused the HMRC child-benefit fiasco. And Keir Starmer tells Donald Trump that NATO serves American interests. From the heart of Europe, this is Europa Daily.

Host: We begin in Budapest, where Hungary is heading into what DW calls the most important election for the country since 1989 — and one of historic significance for the European Union. Péter Magyar's Tisza party leads in the polls ahead of Sunday's vote. Tens of thousands of anti-Orbán supporters filled Heroes' Square in Budapest in a final show of force, while Viktor Orbán held his own rally in the city of Székesfehérvár. The two men have been trading accusations in the last days of the campaign. There is a striking personal dimension to this contest. As the Guardian reports, as a child growing up in Budapest, Péter Magyar had a poster of Viktor Orbán — at the time a leading figure in Hungary's pro-democracy movement — hanging above his bed. Now Magyar is the man trying to end Orbán's fifteen-year grip on power. But the final stretch of the campaign has been marred by disinformation. France 24 reports that Orbán's Fidesz party has deployed a series of what it calls outrageous AI-generated videos targeting Magyar and the Tisza party. Beyond those videos, a vast campaign orchestrated by fake accounts has emerged on TikTok and Facebook. It is an ugly coda to a campaign that will determine not just Hungary's direction, but the dynamics inside the European Union itself. Hungary's veto power in the European Council has been a persistent obstacle to collective EU action. The election result will directly affect decision-making for all twenty-seven member states. Our correspondent in Budapest has more.

Correspondent: The atmosphere in Budapest is charged. Heroes' Square was packed with Magyar supporters in what felt like a decisive moment for the opposition. Magyar's Tisza party has built its campaign around the promise of change after more than a decade of Orbán's rule. But Orbán is not conceding anything — his rally in Székesfehérvár drew loyal crowds, and Fidesz has fought hard in the final days. The disinformation campaign has been striking in its scale. France 24 documented AI-generated videos produced by Fidesz to target Magyar, alongside coordinated fake-account activity across social media platforms. DW describes this election as historic not only for Hungary but for the EU — the outcome will shape how the bloc functions on issues where Hungary has wielded its veto. Back to you.

Host: Thank you. It is worth underlining what DW makes explicit: this election is of historic significance for the EU, not just for Hungary. The result will shape whether Budapest continues to block collective European decisions or moves toward a different posture. We will have full coverage once the polls close.

Host: Now to a crisis that is spreading fast across European economies. Ireland is in its fourth day of fuel-price blockades. Hauliers and farmers have blocked motorways, vehicles including tractors have disrupted travel across parts of the Republic, and the situation at the pumps is getting worse. According to the Guardian, a hundred filling stations have already run dry. Ireland's National Emergency Coordination Group has warned that number could rise to five hundred. People have been urged to buy only the fuel they need. The Irish government is now preparing an emergency fuel-support deal in response to the blockade pressure, the BBC reports. But this is not just an Irish story. The protests have spread to Norway — itself a major oil producer — in what the Guardian describes as a knock-on effect from the conflict in the Middle East. That even an energy-rich country is seeing fuel-price protests underlines how broadly the pain is being felt. The underlying cause is the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Airports Council International has warned of systemic jet-fuel shortages if the strait does not reopen within the next three weeks, according to Sky News. Airports are bracing for mass shortages. Ireland's island geography and import dependency made it the first European country to crack, but the airport fuel warnings apply continent-wide. The fuel crisis is exposing how differently European countries are positioned to absorb the same geopolitical shock — and how quickly disruption at a Middle Eastern chokepoint translates into empty pumps and blocked roads in Dublin and Oslo.

Host: Now to a story that directly concerns millions of people living in this country. The Home Office has begun removing post-Brexit residency rights from EU citizens it says are no longer continuously living in the UK. Around five million EU nationals hold settled status under the 2020 Brexit withdrawal agreement. The initiative is legal under that agreement. But the method is raising serious concerns. As the Guardian reports, the Home Office is using travel data to determine whether people have been absent from the UK. This is the same border data source that was behind the fiasco in which almost twenty thousand parents were stripped of child benefits because of inaccurate Home Office records. The question of data accuracy is not abstract here. If the same flawed information is now being used to revoke settled-status rights, the consequences for individuals could be severe — loss of the right to live and work in a country where they may have built their lives over years or decades. The decision to use travel data to partly determine absences has raised concerns precisely because of that track record. And this matters well beyond Whitehall. The withdrawal agreement's protections for EU citizens' rights are monitored by the European Commission. Any pattern of inaccurate enforcement could become a point of friction between London and Brussels over treaty compliance. For the millions of EU nationals with family, work, or property ties that require regular travel between Britain and the continent, the reliability of the data underpinning these decisions is not a technical detail — it is the difference between keeping and losing their home.

Host: Finally, to the question that hangs over European security. Speaking at the end of a multi-stop trip around the Gulf to discuss the tentative ceasefire in Iran and options to fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz, Keir Starmer pushed back against Donald Trump's threats to leave NATO. The Prime Minister said it is in the best interests of the United States to stay in the alliance. That is a direct rebuttal, delivered publicly, at a moment when the American security commitment that has underpinned European defence for seventy-five years is being openly questioned by the sitting US president. But Starmer did not stop there. He also said that European allies must do more to support the alliance, particularly in light of the war in Iran. That second message acknowledges a reality that defence officials have been grappling with for years. The American guarantee is no longer unconditional, and European governments are being pressed to show they can carry more of the burden. Starmer is trying to hold both arguments at once: NATO is good for America, and European allies cannot rely on American generosity without matching it with greater commitment. The Iran conflict is stretching US military attention, and the Ukraine war remains unresolved. For European governments from the Baltics to the Iberian Peninsula, the questions about collective defence are as serious as they have been in decades. Starmer's intervention frames Britain as an advocate for the alliance in Washington while pressing European partners to step up. Whether that position holds depends on what follows — in defence budgets, in diplomatic coordination, and in the willingness of European capitals to agree on how to share the load.

Host: That is Europa Daily. We'll be back after the Hungarian polls close — with results, reactions, and whatever comes next. Until then, thanks for listening.

• BBC Europe: Final push for votes as challenger to Hungary's Orbán scents victory
• Sky News World: Airports warn of 'systemic' fuel shortages due to Iran war
• BBC Europe: Irish government prepares fuel support deal after blockade pressure
• The Guardian Europe: Fuel-price protests cause chaos in Ireland and spread to Norway
• DW World: As Hungary gears up for a historic election, DW answers a few key questions
• The Guardian Europe: Orbán and rival Magyar hold rallies as Hungary election campaigns enter final stretch – as it happened
• The Guardian Europe: Remaining in Nato is in best interests of US, says Keir Starmer
• France 24 Europe: Orban's opponents targeted by AI-driven disinformation ahead of Hungary's elections
• The Guardian Europe: UK starts crackdown on EU citizens’ post-Brexit rights