Orbán's new friend in the White House: JD Vance

Good morning from Brussels.

Hungarian Viktor Orbán’s close political ties with US president-elect Donald Trump are widely known.

But the man soon to be vice president, JD Vance, has long been an admirer of Orbán, and analysts say the Hungarian hard-right politician was an inspiration when Trumpism’s political vision was being shaped.

Euractiv’s Laurent Geslin digs deeper into how Orbán’s policies and ideology infiltrated Trump’s campaign, Vance’s connections in Budapest, and the role of Orbán-funded foundations in promoting far-right ideologies globally.

Politically, Orbán wants to position himself as a “bridge” between Europe and Trump’s US. However, major pro-EU governments reject such a scenario and have already coordinated the creation of a front “without Hungary.”

In this analysis, Euractiv’s Magnus Lund Nielsen and Nicoletta Ionta focus on how the pro-EU parliamentary political groups ultimately reached a compromise to greenlight the new EU Commission, whether this coalition is sustainable in the long run, and how the EU socialists will deal with their “wounds.”

On the foreign policy front, EU top diplomat Josep Borrell said the International Criminal Court’s decision on Thursday to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant is binding on all member states.

Meanwhile, as the dust settles after COP29 in Baku, human rights experts warn not to take the eyes off ongoing and escalating human rights violations in the country as it seeks to leverage its position as a strategically important oil and gas-rich partner. Nick Alipour digs deeper.

MADRID

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ROME

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LISBON

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STOCKHOLM

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BRATISLAVA

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WARSAW

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SOFIA

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BUCHAREST

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ZAGREB

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[Edited by Sarantis Michalopoulos, Daniel Eck, Alice Taylor-Braçe]