US vice-president JD Vance continues his stay in Budapest, where he is expected to address the conservative Mathias Corvinus Collegium this morning on the back of his yesterday’s “not-at-all endorsement” of the embattled prime minister Viktor Orbán, five days out from the key election on Sunday.
Read moreHis comments yesterday caused quite a stir after he repeatedly blasted the European Union for allegedly interfering with the vote, before repeatedly endorsing Orbán, openly campaigning for him and thus effectively interfering with the election on his own.
Read moreElsewhere, European leaders woke up this morning to much-welcome news that, after all, Donald Trump did not follow through on his earlier threat that “a whole civilisation will die” as he struck a provisional ceasefire deal with Iran.
The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, just welcomed the news saying the agreement will “bring much-needed de-escalation” and a chance for “negotiations for an enduring solution to this conflict [to] continue.”
France’s Emmanuel Macron said the deal was “a very good thing,” and something to build on.
“We expect, in the coming days and weeks, that it will be fully respected throughout the region and will allow negotiations to take place,” Macron said, adding he would want Lebanon to be included in the ceasefire, too.
Finland’s influential president, Alexander Stubb, also praised the move, saying he “continues to support all the efforts to end the war and to build this ceasefire into a more permanent arrangement in the strait of Hormuz and in the whole Middle East.”
But their relief may not last long as Nato’s Mark Rutte is travelling to Washington today to meet with Trump, US secretary of state Marco Rubio and US secretary of defence Pete Hegseth after their last week’s frustrations with the alliance.
Let’s see if we hear more complaints about it, or if Rutte’s unique, at time bordering on sycophancy, style of communications helps him get Trump to change his rhetoric once again.
Lots for us to monitor and cover. I will bring you all the latest.
It’s Wednesday, 8 April 2026, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.
