People & Profit

Hungary is preparing for a new era, after the centre-right Tisza party of Peter Magyar won a landslide victory over longtime nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Magyar says he'll seek to repair Hungary's confrontational relationship with the European Union, something that could unlock much-needed EU funding for Ukraine and for Hungary itself. Many voters said the stagnating economy was a major factor in their decision to turn against 16 years of Orban's rule. 

Speaking to FRANCE 24, Balazs Szent-Ivanyi, reader in politics at Aston University's Centre for Europe, says the incoming Hungarian government can't usher in change overnight.

"The Tisza party has a very long manifesto, which is fairly rare in Hungarian politics – Fidesz, for example, had no manifesto at all. We see quite a lot of promises, many of them actually relate to increasing spending, which seems difficult to enact at the moment. The budget deficit for this year is forecast around 5-5.5 percent, and that doesn't necessarily take into account the extra spending that the war in Iran is creating." 

Szent-Ivanyi says that in the medium-term, Magyar could launch an effort to join the eurozone. Integrating into the shared currency bloc "would bring a lot of certainty and increased credibility for the government's economic policies (...) The problem is that Hungary currently doesn't fulfil any of the Maastricht criteria required for introducing the euro. So there's quite a lot of work to do there."

The US and Israel’s war with Iran has triggered one of the biggest global energy shocks in decades. Asian economies, in particular, are facing disruptions to oil and gas supplies, while energy prices have surged worldwide. Climate activists say the shock should serve as a catalyst in the switch to renewable energy sources. 

Harjeet Singh, Strategic Adviser at the Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative and Founding Director of Satat Sampada, says the conflict "has exposed a fatal flaw, that is Asia's overwhelming and unsustainable reliance on imported fossil fuels. For the Global South, transitioning to renewables is no longer just about meeting climate targets – it's about energy security and sovereignty." 

He cites Nepal and Pakistan as examples of countries which have already adopted renewable energy sources and are better equipped to withstand the shock. "Nepal has electrified its transport sector much faster. We've seen Pakistan importing 35 gigawatts of renewable energy, and a quarter of the population that is now  dependent on those renewable energy sources are able to deal with  the crisis much better. So  there is also a lesson in this crisis." 

While high petrol prices are pushing more French drivers towards electric vehicles, Singh says consumer demand can drive policy change. "We see that happening in the region, and in India in particular the middle class is very inclined to adopt EVs (...)  If you compare what's happening in the West, where EVs are generally luxury passenger cars, whereas the revolution that we see in the Global South and particularly India is heavily driven by two-wheelers and three-wheelers." 

Fertility treatments such as IVF are becoming increasingly common. But a study by UK-based organisation Fertility Matters at Work suggests that nearly two-thirds of respondents do not feel comfortable speaking to their employer about support during the process. Our guests, Becky Kearns – CEO and co-founder of Fertility Matters at Work – and Suzy Jackson, COO of RVO Health, say both employers and governments can help change that.

Kearns says many women undergoing IVF report taking unpaid sick leave to keep up with medical appointments and treatment. "This was having a huge impact on individuals, but also on the workplace as well, because we know that short-notice sickness absence is going to disrupt an organisation and a team more than having an open conversation about flexible working, which is what we advise."

Without support, Jackson warns, "we are going to see more and more people dropping out or falling behind, because of a culture of not feeling like people can speak up about what they're going through, and the logistical and practical support that they need at the time." 

Kearns works to help organisations become “fertility friendly”. "That means that there is a clear policy or guidance in place, something in writing, to show employees what they are entitled to (...)  There's a big piece of work around breaking down stigma and raising awareness and creating a really safe culture that allows people to feel psychologically safe to share that they're going on this journey and to know that it won't impact their careers."

Jackson says there are broader lessons to be learned about how the healthcare industry treats women. "I think women's health has started to get a lot more attention in the last couple of years, but there's a long way to go. I think we have a generation of extraordinary women who are quietly managing some of the hardest medical experiences of their lives, while leading teams and closing deals and running companies, and they deserve more than silence. I think women's health deserves a lot more investment."  

As tensions between the US, Israel and Iran choke the Strait of Hormuz, cutting global energy and fertiliser flows, markets face rising prices and food insecurity. We discuss the global fallout with Carlos Razo from the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), exploring the risks for the world's poorest economies and the threat of widespread inflation.

The spiralling conflict in Iran has highlighted the potential vulnerability of Gulf states when it comes to food and water security. Countries like Bahrain and Qatar depend heavily on desalinated water, and strikes on desalination plants have sparked concern about water supplies. Meanwhile, the usual flow of food imports through the Strait of Hormuz has been disrupted by the fighting.

Christian Henderson, lecturer in International Relations and Middle East Studies at Leiden University, says any concerted targeting of water facilities would represent an escalation in hostilities. "The Gulf states are growing economies, large economies, they have large tourism sectors and large service economies. All of these activities depend on water in some form or another – either directly as drinking water but also all kinds of other uses."

Regional governments say they're not worried about food shortages, but Henderson warns there will be knock-on effects. "In any type of war, you will always find problems with food security because it just causes a huge amount of disruption to supply chains, deliveries, logistics. So Iran will be facing some problems in terms of food supplies. And moreover, and this will affect everyone, just the general inflationary shock that will be created by this war will spill over into food prices – within Iran, in the Gulf states, and across the global economy."

Watch moreCentral banks confront spectre of inflation as Iran war escalates

Henderson says the conflict could be a turning point for Gulf economies. "This war has really illustrated how, despite the huge fiscal capacity of the Gulf states, and their logistical sector, there's still an exposure to geopolitics and the instabilities of the region. And the only real means of mitigating that is by increasing domestic production."

Also in the show, our correspondents Chloé Domat and Amira Souilem report on Qatar's efforts to become more self-sufficient by investing in desert farms. 

The European Union is facing an “almost existential moment” as it seeks to weather global turmoil. That is the warning from Ireland’s Tánaiste and Minister for Finance, Simon Harris. He says the current conflict in the Middle East serves as “a stark reminder of how Europe must become much more energy independent and much more economically resilient."

Harris tells FRANCE 24 that he expects the United States to act “in good faith” in implementing a stalled EU trade deal, despite President Donald Trump’s shifting threats on tariffs. He describes the pact as “imperfect,” but maintains that “having an agreement in times of uncertainty is always better than not having an agreement.”

The Tánaiste says he still sees the US as a reliable trading partner. “When you strip away the noise or the headlines, and actually look at the detail, the trading relationship between the European Union and the United States, between Ireland and the US, is still strong, is still robust, is actually still growing. That’s despite all the challenges and headwinds. It’s important to judge an administration based on what they actually do, on substance, and we’re navigating our way through this.”

Harris – who is set to serve as Ireland’s Prime Minister from November 2027 – says he disagrees with other global leaders who have suggested that the multilateral world order is coming to an end. “I believe it’s under pressure, like it hasn’t been in any recent time. But therefore there’s an onus on us who believe in it to champion it, to speak up (…) No matter how big or small a country you are, the challenges and the opportunities of our time cannot be addressed alone. We are all way more interdependent than sometimes politics likes to suggest.”

What does the corporate workplace look like in 2026? Following the Covid-19 pandemic, many employers implemented flexible schedules, which allowed employees to work from home for some or all of their week. Many firms are now backtracking, saying that even a hybrid model is no longer suitable. Some of the major employers who are mandating a full or partial return to the office include tech giants, as well as financial firms. For more, we speak to Roger Philby, UK Head of Consulting at the management consulting firm Korn Ferry. 

The automobile industry has been steering towards an electric future. In Europe, sales of both fully electric and hybrid cars have risen as costs drop and technology improves. Competition within the industry is fierce, and new players are challenging legacy carmakers. 

The Chinese brand Zeekr is among newcomers hoping to make inroads. Lothar Schupet, CEO of Zeekr Europe, says that many Chinese manufacturers are "providing – simply for the money people will spend – much more car, much more technology, more performance, and also in our case more craftsmanship and luxury." As the company prepares to start selling EVs in France, he says he's confident Zeekr can compete with more established carmakers in the premium market. "We are still at the starting point of building a brand (...) Our goal is very clearly defined: we want to be one of the top players in Europe." 

Schupet says that EU tariffs of up to 45 percent on Chinese-made cars were a small roadbump in the firm's European rollout. "We are looking into options, in terms of local production and getting even more efficient. But what is clear is that tariffs have not held us back." 

Schupet said a recent EU U-turn on banning the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2035 won't stop the industry from becoming more sustainable. "Electrification and the adoption of electric mobility is happening. With an extension of CO2 emissions for a few years further, that will not change."

He believes that consumers, not regulators, will drive demand. "When you look into the consumer value – the total cost of ownership – there are a lot of advantages where the consumer will decide. And we see (...) even in very traditional countries like Germany and France, now the EV adoption is generating more acceleration, more pace." 

In a changing global landscape, Europe's defence industry is being reshaped and revitalised. Over the past five years, EU member states have boosted their defence spending by 63 percent to reach €381 billion euros in 2025.

Jacob Parakalis, Research Leader for Defence Strategy, Policy, and Capabilities at RAND Europe, says Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 "focused attention on the need to increase Europe's defences and invest in capabilities across land, sea and air domains, cyber security and resilience".

Watch moreTackling under-investment in EU defence: Is the bloc putting its money where its mouth is?

He says the bigger budgets are targeting specific needs. "A lot of it is going to reinvigorate the industrial base. One thing that the war in Ukraine has revealed is the speed with which existing stocks of weapons are exhausted. So being able to manufacture large numbers of artillery shells, to repair damaged armoured vehicles, to maintain fighter aircraft to get them back in the fight, to train and sustain forces of all types, is really critical. The burn rate with which weapons and ammunition are used is far beyond anything that Europe has experienced in the last 30 or 40 years. So that kind of investment is really critical in order to credibly be able to be prepared for a long, conventional war."

US President Donald Trump's threats over Greenland have also put a spotlight on Europe's reliance on American technology. "I think we're talking about years into decades" before the EU could cut those ties, Parakalis tells us.

Watch moreGreenland crisis further damages transatlantic ties: Time for a major strategic rethink?

The US is the top exporter of arms in the world, and Parakalis says that's partly because of the way its technology is sold. "It's about the way the weapons are knitted together with systems of sensors, it's about the enabling equipment. The US sells a coherent network, it sells a system of systems that allows these things to work together. Very few countries sell all the individual pieces of a system of systems. China is getting close, Russia does although its performance in Ukraine has broadly left something to be desired. Europe, collectively, is close. But the problem is there are different European companies producing different, sometimes competitive and sometimes not wholly overlapping elements of these systems, so it's harder for there to be a singular European offering which is competitive with the singular American offering." 

Artificial intelligence is the next frontier – but is it also the next bubble? That's the question investors have been asking since tech giants began investing billions of dollars in AI and driving stock market gains. We put the question to an expert.

Professor Jon Danielsson, Director of the Systemic Risk Centre at the London School of Economics, says he is "fairly certain" the market is at the top of an AI bubble, whose current levels of growth and investment cannot be sustained. "The real question is if it's only stock market investors, then those investors will of course suffer significant losses (...) But the bigger threat to societies is if it's financed by borrowing money – which is increasingly the case – and especially if banks are providing the money. So what happens is if some of these investments sour, which I think is clearly likely, and if banks end up suffering significant losses, that itself can threaten the stability of the financial system."

He believes comparisons to the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s are well-founded. "Every technology bubble we have seen over the past 150 years is similar. We saw the telegraphs, electricity, the internet, telephones, railroads – they all meant that a large number of investors piled into this technology. The benefit to society was significant (...) but by far most of these investors lost everything, and only a handful ended up being winners. I see many parallels with the AI bubble today."

Watch moreAI's insatiable appetite for cash, energy and data: Bubble ahead?

When it comes to the technology itself, Danielsson says his biggest concern is "how the private sector is rapidly rolling out AI and spending lots of money developing and using the technology, while the public sector is far behind. I've been following this space for a long time, and I've never seen as much difference between the capabilities of the public and private sectors."

Danielsson admits: "I use AI very extensively. I don't know how I did my work before AI happened!" He says that despite some concerns, the technology is rapidly becoming inescapable. "I suspect all of us will end up being very big users of AI going forward, and those who resist or don't want to use AI might find themselves on the wrong side of their careers, if not history."