![[Interview] EU’s new merger overhaul risks ignoring the small firms that keep Europe competitive, economist says](/Education?url=https%3A%2F%2Fstatic.euobserver.com%2F2026%2F05%2Fbernardo-2400x1603.jpeg)
The EU is loosening merger rules to build larger European companies that can compete globally, but may be overlooking its SMEs, where much of Europe’s innovation is happening.
Clear “guarantees” that the US cannot backtrack on its trade deal with the EU are needed before MEPs can approve it, warned the European Parliament’s top negotiator, Bernd Lange.
Budapest mayor Gergely Karácsony says Orbán’s system has “collapsed”, forcing Hungary to rebuild. He gives an insider’s view of Magyar and of Orbán’s €2bn ‘Castle’, while urging the EU to see its cities as strongholds of democracy.
As Poland faces mounting pressure to recognise same-sex marriages registered in the EU, one young activist from Warsaw tells EUobserver how conservative forces are trying to resist reform and what it means for LGBTQ+ rights in the country.
From Hungary to France, financial strains, political influence, and growing restrictions on press freedom are ever worse in Europe, the general secretary of the European Federation of Journalists, Ricardo Gutiérrez, tells EUobserver in an interview.
Nato remains strong despite current tensions, says Stubb as he calls Europe to take on more responsibility for its own defence.
“Ever since the 1990s, the narrative has been … ‘divide and conquer’ in the Balkans. The students have a different approach: ‘unite and conquer’.”
![[Interview] Palestine’s UN envoy pushes EU to show ‘tough love’ to Israel: ‘Business as usual is not working’](/Education?url=https%3A%2F%2Fstatic.euobserver.com%2F2026%2F05%2FConferencia_emergencia_Palestina-Joel_Gonzalez_08.jpg)
Palestinian UN envoy Mansour said Europe must abandon “business as usual” with Israel, urging real pressure to defend the two-state solution, in an interview with EUobserver.
![[Interview] MEP Daniel Freund warns Slovakia anti-corruption purge can cost millions: ‘If EU funds aren’t safe, stop them’](/Education?url=https%3A%2F%2Fstatic.euobserver.com%2F2026%2F05%2F1729688599814_20241023_EP-174102D_AR2_MCU_037-1.jpg)
A veteran watchdog of the rule of law in Hungary, German Green MEP Daniel Freund warns that Slovakia is now going down a similar path. He said the EU Commission must trigger the conditionality mechanism immediately to protect EU taxpayer money from being funnelled into private interests, to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, where it took over a decade to penalise Hungary.
The EU’s embrace of US ‘identity politics’ has helped create a culture war that has polarised politics and debate across the bloc, contends Frank Furedi.
There is no energy crisis in the world, and experts do not expect one in the near future, regardless of the fact that the Persian Gulf may remain closed for quite a long time, says Mikhail Krutichin.
German sociologist Andreas Reckwitz: “…the climate crisis has robbed many people of their belief in the future of the planet. Russia’s attack on Ukraine shook Europe’s faith in the existing security order. The pace of economic growth is very limited and, in many Western democracies, governments have lost their capacity to act”.
“Like it or not, suffer it, my beauty”, joked Vladimir Putin about Ukraine, using a necrophiliac rape lyric, which prefigured war crimes, as Russian culture also seduced Western macho men.
Bulgarian public intellectual and political scientist Ivan Krastev interviewed on the post-Cold War ‘West’ and the future of Europe. ‘An obsession with European unity will no longer work. I do not believe that the European Union can cope with the challenges of the real world if we insist on having all 27 countries on board. We need a much more flexible structure. The future of the EU – if it is to succeed – is a strange mixture of integration and disintegration’, he warns.
German analyst Carlo Masala looks at whether Europe is behaving wisely towards Trump and if the world will actually allow it to arm itself.
![Hungarian political scientist Eszter Kováts: 'The whistleblowing in the final weeks of the campaign showed that the police and military weren't fully behind him [Viktor Orban]
Photo: Tomas Benedikovic](/Education?url=https%3A%2F%2Fstatic.euobserver.com%2F2026%2F04%2Feszterkovats-2400x1601.jpg)
“He didn’t fall into Viktor Orbán’s culture war trap — like the opposition always did.” Hungarian political scientist Eszter Kováts explains the rise of Péter Magyar. The liberals and the mainstream rightwing European parties expect much more from him than he is ready to give, in her opinion. “But he will not be Orbán,” she says.
Hungarian journalist Alinda Veiszer reflects on the dismantling of public media, the pressures placed on reporters under Orbán’s system, and the stubborn forms of creative resistance that emerged.
László Mérő, the mathematician and psychologist turned public intellectual, says Fidesz’s rhetoric now echoes the language of the Third Reich and argues that the hatred shaping Hungarian politics has been consciously manufactured. In a wide-ranging interview, he reflects on Orbán’s transformation, the failures of the past 16 years, and why he believes the country could still change course.
Psychiatrist and writer Péter Hunčík argues that Viktor Orbán has transformed Hungary not only politically but psychologically, replacing civic autonomy with tribal loyalty, diffuse anxiety and a rewritten moral order. In this interview, he traces how power, myth, religion and fear have been used to remake both the state and society.
“They [US forces] would obey if an order came to pull back [from Europe], but it’s not something they would concur with,” said retired Italian admiral Gianpaolo di Paola in an interview with EUobserver.