Eurotopics.net

For the first time in history, a US president has verbally attacked the pope. In a lengthy social media post Donald Trump said the pontiff was "terrible for foreign policy" and was damaging the Catholic Church. Leo XIV has repeatedly criticised Trump's policies, albeit indirectly, from migration policy to the war in Iran. In response to Trump's tirade, the pope said he was proclaiming the message of the Gospel.

In Ireland, lorry drivers, farmers and taxi and bus companies have staged major protests in recent days against rising petrol and diesel prices. On Sunday protesters used their vehicles to block streets in and around Dublin and there were skirmishes with the police. The events draw criticism in the Irish press.

US Vice President JD Vance tried to drum up support for Viktor Orbán at a campaign rally – which did the veteran prime minister no favours at all. Commentators are now speculating that it was precisely Vance's intervention that led to Orbán's crushing defeat and cite further examples of failed initiatives by Trump's second-in-command.

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

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