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Orbán government takes victory lap, despite party's worst-ever performance in EU parliament race

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Orbán government takes victory lap, despite party's worst-ever performance in EU parliament race

The day after Hungarians voted in the European Parliament elections, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government declared a big win, but missing from the victory speeches was an acknowledgement that it was his party’s worst performance in an EU election since Hungary joined the bloc 20 years ago.

The lackluster showing can largely be attributed to the emergence of a new political force in Hungary — Péter Magyar, a former insider in Orbán’s Fidesz-KDNP coalition, who broke with the party and declared his intention to build a popular movement to defeat Orbán and sweep away his autocratic system.

Eleven of Hungary’s 21 delegates to the EU’s legislature will come from Fidesz — more than any of its domestic competitors. After tallying 44% of Sunday’s vote, the government said the result clearly signals overwhelming support for Orbán’s hard-right nationalism.

GERMANY’S CONSERVATIVES FINISH FIRST IN EU ELECTION, AS FAR-RIGHT MOMENTUM SENDS FRANCE’S LEADER SCRAMBLING

“Never before have so many people, 2.015 million, voted for Fidesz-KDNP in an EP election,” spokesman Zoltán Kovács wrote Monday on the social media platform X. “The message is clear: Hungarians say no to war, migration, and gender ideology.”

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Nonetheless, Fidesz has never performed so poorly in a European Union election since it joined in 2004. Votes for the party were down sharply from its 52% support in the 2019 polls, and it lost two of its European Parliament seats.

András Bíró-Nagy, an analyst and director of the Budapest-based think tank Policy Solutions, said the power of Orbán — who returned to office in 2010 — has never been more at risk.

“We are in an unknown territory because previously it was not imaginable that a single political party could mount a serious challenge to Viktor Orbán,” Bíró-Nagy said.

FILE – Viktor Orbán waves after his annual state of the nation speech in Varkert Bazaar conference hall of Budapest, Hungary, Feb. 12, 2022. (AP Photo/Anna Szilagyi, File)

Magyar’s new party, Respect and Freedom (TISZA), won nearly 30% of the vote on Sunday, earning seven delegates in the EU legislature. He has said the election would propel his movement into a stronger position to challenge and defeat Orbán in the next national ballot, scheduled for 2026.

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Late Sunday, thousands of Magyar’s supporters gathered next to the Danube River to await the election results. Addressing the jubilant crowd, Magyar said his party’s performance was a “political landslide” that would usher in a new era of “useful, fair and, especially, honest” governance.

“Today marks the end of an era,” Magyar said. “This is the Waterloo of Orbán’s factory of power, the beginning of the end,” he said, referring to the battle that ended the Napoleonic Wars.

Magyar campaigned less on a specific party program than a structural critique of Orbán’s system, which he characterized as rife with corruption, nepotism, intimidation and propaganda.

He derided the condition of Hungary’s education and health care systems, accused Fidesz of creating a class of oligarchs enriched with lucrative public contracts, and vowed to form a more constructive relationship with the EU.

Hungary’s traditional opposition parties, through pressure from Orbán’s government and their own fractiousness and infighting, have been unable to mount a serious challenge to Fidesz in the past 14 years.

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“The Péter Magyar phenomenon is the symptom of a deep crisis in Hungarian politics,” said Bíró-Nagy. “This reflects not only some disillusionment with the Orbán regime, but it shows the complete disillusionment with the established opposition.”

“Many people in Hungary are craving for something new, are craving for change, and they are willing to support basically anybody who shows potentially some strength against the Orbán regime,” he said.

Magyar’s rise followed a series of scandals that rocked Orbán’s government and prompted the resignation of the president and justice minister. A deep economic crisis, compounded by the highest inflation in the 27-member EU, also led to a drop in popularity for the bloc’s longest-serving leader.

Meanwhile, the EU has frozen more than 20 billion euros ($21.5 billion) to Hungary over its violations of rule-of-law and democracy standards, and Orbán’s friendly relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin have pushed him further into the margins from his EU and NATO allies.

Ahead of the elections, the five-time prime minister campaigned on an anti-EU platform, and cast the ballot as a contest that would decide whether Russia’s war in Ukraine would engulf Europe.

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He relied heavily on culturally divisive issues such as migration, LGBTQ+ rights and fears that the war could escalate to involve Hungary directly if his political opponents were successful.

But Fidesz’s weakened position suggests Orbán’s hopes that the EU election would consolidate euroskeptic parties and deliver him a bigger role on Europe’s far-right have likely been dashed.

“Orbán has already taken the place of the radical right in Hungarian politics,” Bíró-Nagy said. “But the breakthrough that Viktor Orbán was hoping for didn’t materialize at the European level.”

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Patriots rookie RB Tre’Veyon Henderson sidelined against Ravens with head injury

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Patriots rookie RB Tre’Veyon Henderson sidelined against Ravens with head injury

BALTIMORE (AP) — New England running back Tre’Veyon Henderson left Sunday night’s game at Baltimore in the second quarter with a head injury.

Henderson was slow getting up after a carry in Baltimore territory. He was able to walk off the field, but then headed to the tunnel a short time later. He was later ruled out.

Henderson entered the game with 773 yards rushing and is a Rookie of the Year candidate after teaming up with Drake Maye to help the Patriots close in on a playoff berth. He had touchdown runs of 52 and 65 yards in last week’s loss to Buffalo.

He had just 3 yards on five carries before exiting against Baltimore.

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Iran executes man convicted of spying for Israeli intelligence

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Iran executes man convicted of spying for Israeli intelligence

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Iranian officials executed a man over the weekend who was convicted of spying for Israel’s intelligence arm and its army, according to state media.

The man was Aghil Keshavarz, who was put to death on Saturday, state media reported.

Keshavarz, 27, had “close intelligence cooperation” with the Mossad — the national intelligence agency for Israel — and captured photos of Iranian military and security areas, according to state media.

IRAN’S EXECUTION RATE TOPS 1,000 THIS YEAR AS DEATH ROW INMATES LAUNCH HUNGER STRIKE

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Iran executed Aghil Keshavarz, 27, after he was convicted of spying for Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency. (Getty Images)

Keshavarz was arrested in May while taking pictures of a military headquarters in the city of Urmia, located about 371 miles northwest of Iran’s capital of Tehran.

He was accused of engaging in more than 200 similar assignments for the Mossad in various Iranian cities, including Tehran.

Keshavarz was tried and sentenced to death in connection with the spying accusations. The country’s Supreme Court later upheld the sentence, according to state media.

Smoke rises from the building of Iran’s state-run television after an Israeli strike in Tehran, Iran, on June 16, 2025.  (AP Photo)

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Iran has executed 11 people for espionage since a 12-day air conflict in June that was kicked off by Israel, killing roughly 1,100 people in Iran, including military commanders and nuclear scientists. Iran countered with a missile barrage that killed 28 people in the Jewish State.

In October, Iran executed an unknown person convicted of spying for Israel’s intelligence agency in the city of Qom.

IRAN HANGS A MAN CONVICTED OF SPYING FOR ISRAEL

A police officer stands guard as demonstrators wave flags and cheer during a gathering following the announcement of a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, on June 24, 2025, in Tehran, Iran. (Majid Saeedi/Getty Images)

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Various others have been executed in Iran in recent years before the June conflict on allegations of spying for the Mossad, including multiple earlier this year.

Iran routinely conducts closed-door trials of people accused of espionage, with the suspects often unable to access the evidence prosecutors used against them in their case.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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EU plans to raise €90 billion in joint debt for Ukraine — here’s how

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EU plans to raise €90 billion in joint debt for Ukraine — here’s how

Reparations loan is out, joint debt is in. That is the agreement that the 27 leaders of the European Union reached at their make-or-break summit this week.

With the reparations loan ruled out for good, the bloc turns to common borrowing to raise €90 billion to meet Ukraine’s budgetary and military needs for the next two years.

It is a simpler, faster and more predictable solution compared to the high-risk scheme of using the immbolised Russian assets. But joint debt is expensive, and immediately so.

Here’s what you need to know about the plan.

Back to the markets

Since neither the EU nor its member states have €90 billion at their disposal at the moment, the European Commission will go to the markets and raise the money from scratch by issuing a mix of short-term and long-term bonds.

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The €90 billion will be gradually dolled out to ensure a steady flow of assistance to Ukraine, which needs a fresh tranche as early as April. The country will be able to use the funds for both military and budgetary purposes for greater flexibility.

In the meantime, the EU budget will absorb the interest rates to spare Ukraine, already heavily indebted, from any additional burden. The Commission estimates that, under current rates, the interest payments will amount to €3 billion per year. This means the next EU budget (2028-2034) will have to make space for about €20 billion.

Member states will share the interest according to their economic weight. Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Poland will carry the highest costs.

According to Commission officials, the €90 billion will not count towards domestic levels of debt because the issuance will be done exclusively at the EU level.

Forever roll-over

Under a non-recourse loan agreement, Ukraine will be asked to pay back the €90 billion only after Russia ceases its war of aggression and agrees to pay war reparations.

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Given that Moscow has emphatically ruled out the possibility of any compensation, the Commission is already prepared to roll out the liability over time so that Ukraine does not have to pay out of pocket, which will be painful after suffering so much devastation.

“The assumption is, today it’s a non-recourse loan to Ukraine that is only paid back when reparations are there, and therefore this debt is going to be rolled over up until then,” a senior Commission official explained.

But will the roll-over continue for eternity?

That seems unlikely. At some point in the future, the EU will have to settle the fate of the €90 billion to stop paying interest rates. The go-to method will be the EU budget, which will act as the ultimate guarantor to ensure investors are always paid back.

The three opt-outs

The reason why joint debt for Ukraine is now possible is that, as first reported by Euronews during the summit, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic agreed to refrain from vetoing in exchange for being exempted.

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This is key because under current rules, the EU budget cannot be used to raise money for a non-EU country. Any changes to that effect will require unanimous approval.

Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic will commit to that unanimity. In return, the bloc will activate the so-called “enhanced cooperation” mechanism to spare them from any costs and responsibilities associated with the €90 billion.

The other 24 countries will take over their share of the interest. But the change will be minimal because the three opt-outs only amount to 3.64% of the bloc’s GNI.

The exemption will also be institutional. Once the budget rules are amended and the “enhanced cooperation” is triggered, the three countries will lose their voting rights to approve the regulation that will establish the new assistance programme.

In practice, they will be strictly removed from the initiative.

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Strings attached

The Commission intends to recycle the now-discarded proposal of the reparations loan to set up the €90 billion common borrowing.

As a result, Ukraine will be subject to the same conditions to receive the funds.

One of them is a “no rollback” clause that will link the aid to the anti-corruption measures that Kyiv must implement to advance in its EU accession bid. The country was recently shaken by a corruption scandal in the energy sector that precipitated numerous resignations, including that of Andriy Yermak, President Zelenskyy’s chief of staff.

If Kyiv takes a step back on the fight against corruption, as it briefly did in the summer when it undermined the independence of two anti-corruption agencies and prompted widespread protests, payments will be suspended.

There will also be safeguards to strengthen oversight on how Ukraine allocates defence contracts, which have been a source of controversy in the past.

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Additionally, there will be “Made In Europe” criteria to ensure the €90 billion fosters Ukraine’s and Europe’s domestic defence industries. Only when the equipment is not readily available on the continent will purchases outside Europe be allowed.

Assets still on the table

Resorting to joint debt means the cash balances from the Russian assets will not be touched, as was originally planned in the reparations loan.

However, in their conclusions, EU leaders say they reserve “the right” to tap the assets, or at least try, sometime in the future, as a way to repay the €90 billion borrowing.

“For me, it’s very difficult and very premature today to say how this will be translated in actual terms,” a senior Commission official said when asked about the meaning.

“I think the message is pretty political, which is to say that the option to use the cash balance assets of the Russian Central Bank is not off the table.”

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The addition of the assets into the final wording is considered a way to placate those countries that were most vocally supportive of the reparations loan, particularly Germany, and had publicly ruled out the idea of common borrowing.

President Zelenskyy hailed the decision as an “important victory” for his country.

“Without these funds, it would be very difficult for us. In any case, this is tied to Russian reparations,” he said. “For us, this is a reinforcement. It is a signal to the Russians that there is no point for them to continue the war because we have financial support, and therefore, we will not collapse on the front line. We will support our army and our people.”

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