Nationalist leaders lined up to endorse Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in a campaign video released this week as the election race begins in earnest. The nearly two-minute clip, posted by Orbán, rolls out support from a who’s who of European and international conservatives, including Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, her deputy Matteo Salvini, French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, Alternative for Germany (AfD) co-leader Alice Weidel, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The coordinated show of support comes as Orbán heads into what is likely to be his most competitive election in more than a decade. Hungary’s President Tamás Sulyok confirmed Tuesday that the country will go to the polls on April 12. After nearly 20 years at the helm, Orbán faces mounting criticism at home and abroad over democratic backsliding, curbs on media freedom, and the erosion of the rule of law. His Fidesz party, which has governed since 2010, is now trailing the opposition Tisza Party, led by former Orbán ally Péter Magyar. “Together we stand for a Europe that respects national sovereignty, is proud of its cultural and religious roots,” Meloni said in the video, as she endorsed Hungary’s incumbent leader. “Security cannot be taken for granted, it must be won. And I think Viktor Orbán has all those qualities. He has the tenacity, the courage, the wisdom to protect his country,” Netanyahu added. Also featured are Spain’s Vox chief Santiago Abascal, Austria’s Freedom Party (FPÖ) leader Herbert Kickl, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, and Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, all key figures in the conservative, populist and far-right political sphere. Argentine President Javier Milei also appears in the video. POLITICO’s Poll of Polls puts Magyar’s Tisza on 49 percent, well ahead of Fidesz on 37 percent. Magyar has built momentum by campaigning on pledges to strengthen judicial independence, clamp down on corruption and offer voters a clear break from Orbán’s rule. In Brussels, Orbán has frequently clashed with EU institutions and other member states over issues including support for Ukraine, sanctions on Russia and LGBTQ+ rights, making him a polarizing figure within the bloc. The campaign video, featuring a slate of foreign leaders, positions his re-election bid in a broader international context, tying Hungary’s vote to themes of national sovereignty and political alignment beyond the country’s borders. POLITICO was able to confirm the video’s authenticity via representatives for Weidel and Salvini. Ketrin Jochecová, Nette Nöstlinger and Gerardo Fortuna contributed to this report.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Friday denounced an attack on investigative journalist Sigfrido Ranucci after an explosive device detonated under his car outside his home late Thursday. No one was injured in the blast, which damaged a second family vehicle and a neighboring house in Pomezia, a municipality south of Rome. Anti-mafia prosecutors have opened an investigation, ANSA reported. “I express my full solidarity with the journalist Sigfrido Ranucci and the strongest condemnation for the serious act of intimidation he has suffered,” Meloni said in a statement. “The freedom and independence of information are non-negotiable values of our democracies, which we will continue to defend.” Ranucci and the Meloni government have a tense relationship. Report, the show he hosts, has repeatedly investigated government figures, including a probe into the alleged role of officials in the attempted takeover of Mediobanca by Monte dei Paschi di Siena, which led Meloni’s Head of Cabinet Gaetano Caputi to pursue leagal action in July against the program. In recent years, Ranucci has faced multiple lawsuits from members of Meloni’s government, the Senate President Ignazio La Russa, Finance Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti and prominent political families, including the Berlusconis. Other members of Meloni’s government also expressed solidarity with Ranucci. Defense Minister Guido Crosetto called the attack “extremely serious, cowardly and unacceptable,” while Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi pledged full police support to identify the perpetrators and strengthen the journalist’s protection. Ranucci has lived under police guard for years after he and his newsroom received threats due to their reporting on politicians, business leaders and other public figures but also mafia networks and corruption cases tied to organized crime. Earlier this week, he was acquitted in a defamation case stemming from one of Report’s investigations. Since taking office in 2022, Meloni has faced criticism for actions perceived as undermining press freedom, including legal threats against journalists and censorship attempts, raising concerns among watchdog organizations and European institutions about the state of media independence in Italy.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen delivered pointed remarks Wednesday to Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić about his country’s progress toward EU membership. “Now is the moment for Serbia to get concrete about joining our union,” said the Commission chief, during a press conference in Belgrade on her tour of the Western Balkans. “Therefore, we need to see progress, on the rule of law, the electoral framework and media freedom,” von der Leyen added. “I know these reforms are not easy,” she said. “They take patience and endurance. They must include all parts of society and the political spectrum. But they are worth the effort. Because they move you closer to your goal.” Von der Leyen also urged the Serbian president to join the EU in imposing sanctions against Russia. Belgrade has consistently refused to align with the bloc in sanctioning Russian energy and goods, especially since it is almost entirely dependent on Russian gas. “I commend you for reaching 61 percent of alignment with our foreign policy. But more is needed. We want to count on Serbia as a reliable partner,” said von der Leyen. Serbia applied for EU membership in 2009 and was subsequently granted candidate status in 2012, later opening accession negotiations with the EU in 2013. Since then, 22 of the 35 chapters of accession criteria have been opened — but only two have been provisionally closed. Leadership in the Western Balkan country has come under heavy criticism in recent years. Protests triggered by the collapse of the Novi Sad train station canopy in November last year turned into a wider revolt over corruption, accountability, and democratic backsliding, which was met with a violent response from police. The European Green Party criticized the Commission chief’s visit to Serbia, calling it “deeply regrettable that von der Leyen honors Vučić with an official visit without visible reservations, while his regime unlawfully detains students and opposition members and violently represses protesters,” its co-chair Vula Tsetsi said in a statement. The U.S. decided last week to sanction Serbia’s leading oil supplier, the Petroleum Industry of Serbia (NIS), because it is majority-owned by Russia’s Gazprom Neft. Vučić met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Beijing during a regional security summit in September, reaffirming Serbia’s commitment to purchasing Russian gas and potentially increasing it. “Since the beginning of the Ukrainian crisis, Serbia has been in a very difficult situation and under great pressure, but … we will preserve our neutrality,” said Vučić, utilizing Kremlin terminology for its war on Kyiv.

Jamie Dettmer is opinion editor and a foreign affairs columnist at POLITICO Europe. The five stone-faced police officers that detained Irish comedy writer Graham Linehan at Heathrow airport for three trans critical posts this week didn’t unholster their sidearms, but they nevertheless managed to shoot themselves in the foot. Or, to be more accurate, they shot British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in the foot, with a rankling arrest that unsurprisingly sparked a political firestorm — and the free speech debacle couldn’t have come at a better time for far-right ReformUK party leader Nigel Farage. “Politics is downstream from culture,” the late American conservative publisher Andrew Breitbart once famously argued. This is the maxim now guiding MAGA ideologues as well as the likes of Farage, who is now posing as a free-speech defender and stirring the pot for the benefit of populists. Never one to mute his hyperbole, Farage was touring Washington this week, stirring up trouble as only he knows how. Testifying before the House Judiciary Committee — a panel chaired by Republican Representative Jim Jordan, who’s been examining the impact British and European online safety rules are having on U.S. tech giants — the U.K.’s roister-in-chief was in his provocative element, reveling in clashes with irate Democratic lawmakers. Gleefully raising Linehan’s arrest as another example of the “war on freedom” being waged in Britain — and even Europe for that matter — he compared the U.K. to the likes of North Korea, calling it an “illiberal and authoritarian censorship regime.” He also highlighted the case of Lucy Connolly, a local politician’s wife who was jailed for 31 months for inciting violence, after calling for asylum seekers’ hotels to be set alight. Her goading posts came at the height of the Islamophobic anti-migrant riots that broke out in Britain in 2024. Now released, Connolly has grandiosely dubbed herself Starmer’s “political prisoner,” and her case has became a cause célèbre in MAGA world — despite the fact that in a more orderly era in the U.S., her incendiary remarks may well have been construed as posing a direct threat to public safety and, therefore, not protected under the First Amendment. But for Farage and his MAGA friends, Connolly is a political martyr, and His Majesty’s Prison at Peterborough, where she served her sentence, is no different than a Stalin-era Siberian Gulag. During a visit to the White House this winter, Starmer had rebutted rising MAGA criticism over the Labour government’s handling of freedom of expression and online rules, as U.S. Vice President JD Vance told him that Britain’s “infringements on free speech” also “affect American technology companies and by extension American citizens.”  “We’ve had free speech for a very, very long time in the United Kingdom – and it will last for a very, very long time,” Starmer chided gently in response. But according to Farage this week, Starmer had “talked about our proud history of free speech but what people say, what they do, are two very different things.” And isn’t that the truth. Of course, increasingly open-ended and vaguely drafted online safety regulations, as well as some undeniably heavy-handed policing of speech in Britain and elsewhere should be cause for some alarm. And it has prompted many across the political spectrum — not just populists — to rightly to question whether there’s a drift toward “unfreedom” in Western democracies. In Britain, police are now making around 12,000 arrests a year for offensive speech and social media posts that cause anxiety. For Nigel Farage and his MAGA friends, Lucy Connolly is a political martyr. | Neil Hall/EPA For many, the balance between freedom of expression and protection has gone askew and cancel culture has run amok — Linehan’s arrest certainly highlights that something’s amiss. And this has given Farage an opening. But what is it that really troubles the ReformUK leader and MAGA-style populists in the U.S. and Europe? Are they genuine advocates of the classic liberal virtue of free speech, or are they provocateurs using it to foment resentment in a culture war they hope to win? “You can say what you like, I don’t care because that is what free speech is,” Farage told a Democratic lawmaker during the midweek hearing. But despite his righteous rhetoric, much like his MAGA allies, Farage seems more intent on simply replacing the “woke language” of liberals with the anti-woke language of the populist right, on silencing and brow-beating opponents, and on intimidating media outlets  as best he can on the way to establish public cultural dominance. For example, just days before he set off for Washington, a county council led by Farage’s ReformUK party banned the main local newspaper and its website from attending events, and told the outlet’s reporters that elected officials wouldn’t respond to their queries. The ban imposed by Nottinghamshire County Council came after the newspaper had published a series of stories the municipal authority leader claimed “consistently misrepresented” the party. So much for free speech. Now lifted after Farage had a “little chat” with the council amid mounting public criticism, this ban is part and parcel of how Reform often tries to intimidate reporters — or “thuggish bullying” as it’s been described by the Independent’s David Maddox. But bans and bullying are part of the tactics used by every far-right populist. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was the sherpa on this, shaping what he likes to call an “illiberal democracy.” U.S.-based think tank Freedom House labels Hungary as only partly free as its government “moved to institute policies that hamper the operations of opposition groups, journalists, universities, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) whose perspectives it finds unfavorable.” MAGA ideologues in the U.S. have now enlarged the Orbán playbook, targeting NGOs and universities and so-called mainstream media with gusto. They see themselves not just as warriors fighting a national battle but as combatants in a civilizational, politico-cultural crusade that’s to be carried out well beyond America’s shores. As far as they see it, they need save Western civilization — from itself, if necessary. Which means that for them, domestic and foreign policy are one and the same, and that liberal Europe also has to be remade in the MAGA image. “Trump and his MAGA camp believe a dominant liberal establishment has skewed U.S. culture towards a weak progressive ideology that does a disservice to America. This ideology is being fed by a ‘globalist elite,’ chief among them Europeans. The new administration is therefore going after all the liberal holdouts, at home and abroad,” argued Célia Belin of the European Council on Foreign Relations. “MAGA’s solidarity with conservative, nationalist and populist movements in Europe has an objective: finding partners for Trump’s effort to transform global culture.”

Nigel Farage claimed the U.K. had become like North Korea in its approach to free speech while giving evidence to the U.S. Congress Wednesday. In his opening statement, Farage, who was wearing a GB News badge, said the U.K. had sunk into an “awful authoritarian situation,” citing the cases of Lucy Connolly and Graham Linehan. Connolly was jailed after calling for migrant hotels to be “set fire” to in a post on X amid the Southport Riots last summer. Farage described her post as “intemperate.” Linehan was arrested by police at Heathrow Airport this week for posts, also made on X, about trans people. Farage said what happened to Linehan could “happen to any American.” Farage warned the U.K.’s Online Safety Act would “damage trade between our countries” and ended by asking “At what point did we become North Korea?” Neither Connolly nor Linehan were arrested under the U.K.’s Online Safety Act, rather the Public Order Act of 1986. Three hours before Farage’s appearance, U.K. prime minister Keir Starmer used his weekly session in front of the House of Commons to attack Farage. “He’s flown to America, to badmouth and talk down our country,” Starmer said. “Worse than that… he’s gone there to lobby the Americans to impose sanctions on this country, which will harm working people. You cannot get more unpatriotic than that. It’s a disgrace.”  Farage also came under fire from U.S. Congressman Jamie Raskin, the committee’s leading Democratic member, during the session. Before Farage gave his opening statement, Raskin labelled the Clacton MP a  “far-right, pro-Putin politician” a “Donald Trump sycophant and wannabe,” and a “free speech imposter.” “There is no free speech crisis in Britain,” he continued. “Mr Starmer has not shut down GB News, a station Mr Farage hosts a show on.” Raskin added Farage should be talking to his own Parliament about his concerns. The two sparred over freedom of speech in July, when Raskin was in the U.K. with a delegation from the House of Representatives.

European Union countries are increasingly ignoring demands from Brussels to tackle corruption, improve media freedom, raise standards of justice and deal with other threats to democratic society, according to an official report published Tuesday.  The European Commission’s annual “Rule of Law Report” raised serious concerns about the lack of progress in a number of countries, and found that Hungary in particular had failed to make any headway on all but one of the key recommendations it was given a year ago.  The report said EU countries fully implemented or made “significant progress” on only 18 percent of the Commission’s recommendations, compared with a success rate of almost 20 percent last year and more than 25 percent in 2023. Overall, there was “no progress” or “limited progress” on 43 percent of all recommendations made by the Commission over the past year.   European Democracy Commissioner Michael McGrath said officials in Brussels are now drawing up plans to strengthen EU countries’ compliance by making it mandatory to uphold rule-of-law standards as a condition of receiving funding from the bloc’s €1.2 trillion budget. The Commission is due to set out its draft budget blueprint ― covering the seven years from 2028 ― on July 16.  Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, McGrath said “the most concerning” parts of the 800-page report were where countries had failed to make any progress at all against the Commission’s recommendations in the past 12 months. “When you look at the recommendations and the evaluation of last year, where you see a lot of ‘no progress’ being reported, that’s an obvious concern,” McGrath said. “Of course it will be criticized in some quarters, particularly by those who may feel that they’re being criticized in the reports but we have sought to be evidence based and factual in everything we have brought forward.” He warned there had been a “narrowing” of the space for civil society organizations to function, including professional groups representing judges, prosecutors and journalists.  Media companies are also facing growing pressures in some areas, not just because of commercial difficulties, but also the approach to the media in some countries is problematic and we see again the space for some media organizations in some parts of the European Union … under some pressure.”

Sara Qudah is the regional director for the Middle East and North Africa at the Committee to Protect Journalists. In Gaza, journalism is not just under siege, it’s deliberately being starved. I don’t use that word lightly. Across the Middle East, I’ve repeatedly witnessed what happens when governments try to silence the press for daring to cover human rights abuses, repression or war. But what’s happening to Gaza’s journalists right now is unprecedented in its cruelty and effectiveness. For nearly three months, Israel has been enforcing a near-total blockade of food, water, fuel and medical aid into Gaza. International humanitarian agencies warn of inevitable famine for the 2.1 million people trapped inside. And among the many victims is a group the world depends on to understand what’s happening: local journalists. These are the reporters who stayed on the ground while their international counterparts were either pulled out or denied entry. They are the ones who risked their lives — and all too often lost them — to show us the mass graves, burned-to-the-ground hospitals and wounded children whose lives were upended. They are the ones collapsing from hunger while on air. They are the ones sleeping in tents, working with no electricity, filming with deadened hands and spinning heads. And the world is failing them. Let’s call this what it is: a calculated method of erasing critical voices and independent reporting. You don’t need to jail journalists if you can simply starve them into silence. In interviews with the Committee to Protect Journalists this month, Gazan reporters described how hunger is impacting their work and health. “Hunger attacks” bring sharp headaches, dizziness, memory loss and nausea. Saleh Al-Natoor, a reporter for Al Araby TV, has collapsed twice while on air. Shrouq Al Alia, a mother and media director, watches her toddler cry from stomach pain while she burns wood to cook. Every day, they juggle survival and reporting — and both are slipping. This isn’t just a humanitarian crisis, it’s also a crisis of press freedom. Israel denying international media independent access to Gaza since the war began has meant arguably waning international pressure, slowed crucial aid, and delayed or denied justice. This isn’t just collateral damage — it’s intentional. If journalists can’t work, the truth dies with them. No press means no witnesses, no accountability, no record. The siege on Gaza isn’t just depriving civilians of food and water, it’s deliberately stifling everyone’s access to information. We will never know which stories were never told. There is no war zone in the world where journalism can survive without food, clean water and safety. These aren’t luxuries, they’re the bare minimum. Gaza’s reporters are operating under conditions no Western outlet would accept for even a single day. Still, international reaction has been half-hearted at best. A few condemnations, a few aid drops or a handful of trucks trickling into the Gaza Strip… One U.N. official described it as a “teaspoon” of help. Meanwhile, prices for flour have increased 6,900 percent, waterborne disease is spreading, and children are visibly wasting away. If journalism is worth anything, if truth matters, then those responsible for delivering it must be protected. That starts with immediate, sustained pressure on both Israel and Egypt to open humanitarian corridors for journalists and civilians. The Media Freedom Coalition — a 50-nation body founded to protect press rights globally — should raise its voice and act. And the EU should use its ongoing review of the EU-Israel Association Agreement to exert its economic and political leverage. Journalists have been cut off, threatened and killed. | Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP via Getty Images This agreement is more than just a trade pact, it’s a political commitment grounded in shared values: respect for human rights, democratic principles and fundamental freedoms. A free and safe press is key to enabling these rights. Without it, reporters can’t bear witness, document facts or bring voices from the margins into public view. In Gaza, that freedom is under direct assault. Journalists have been cut off, threatened and killed. Families searching for loved ones, civilians enduring bombardment — their stories go untold because the people who would report them are being silenced. This is a violation of the very principles the EU agreement is meant to uphold. That’s why the bloc’s review process can’t become another drawn-out bureaucratic exercise. The harm is happening in real time. The absence of journalists means the absence of accountability, and history shows us where that leads. So, if the EU truly stands by the values it claims to champion, now is the moment to show it. The bloc should suspend its agreement with Israel immediately, and Brussels should be clear: Journalists must be allowed in, and there must be a full transparent and independent investigation into any systematic targeting and killing of civilians, including journalists. According to CPJ reporting, over 184 journalists have been killed since the war began — that’s an unprecedented toll in modern war zones. (In all cases the CPJ has documented, multiple sources found no evidence to date that any of the journalists in our tally were engaged in militant activity.) And anything less than decisive action makes the EU complicit. Gaza’s journalists aren’t asking for special treatment. They’re asking to exist — and to report. That isn’t a radical demand. It’s the price of truth. And let us be clear about the consequences if the international community fails to act: the collapse of humanitarian protection, as well as a precedent for viewing the media as an enemy and normalizing starvation as a weapon of war.

Social media platform X has blocked the account of Ekrem İmamoğlu, a leader of Turkey’s opposition movement and political nemesis of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The block comes at the order of the Erdoğan government, X said in a Thursday post, adding it has challenged the order in court. “We strongly disagree with the order,” the post by its global government affairs team said. It published both a court order requesting the ban and X’s legal challenge. X, owned by tech mogul and Donald Trump confidant Elon Musk, has been cooperating with Turkish government requests to block opposition accounts amid widespread protests following İmamoğlu’s arrest in March. Critics have slammed the platform for having a “double standard,” slamming how Musk proclaims to be a free speech absolutist but also complying with Ankara’s government gag orders. Other Big Tech platforms have also cooperated with similar Turkish government requests in the past. X said in its post that it risks being entirely shut down in Turkey if it does not comply with the orders. The firm’s legal challenges to the government orders, including the one blocking İmamoğlu, may take years to conclude; the accounts in the meantime remain blocked.

Europe has the freest media in the world according to Reporters Without Borders’ annual press freedom ranking — though Southern and Eastern Europe are lagging behind the rest of the continent and the world overall is struggling. The RSF World Press Freedom Index released its yearly report and map on Friday, and it’s particularly good news for journalists in the Nordics and Baltics. The top 15 countries were all in Europe, with Norway scoring the highest, followed by Estonia, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland and Denmark. Norway frequently tops press freedom rankings, with robust legal protections and a thriving media market. France (25) and Italy (49) both dropped several places compared to 2024, while the United Kingdom (20) improved slightly and Poland (31) leaped more than a dozen spots. Greece recorded the worst result in the European Union for the fourth year in a row, coming in at 89. The main reasons for its lackluster score include wiretapping of journalists by intelligence agencies using Predator spyware, government interference, intimidatory lawsuits and inadequate legal guardrails. Its Balkan neighbors also fared poorly, with Croatia (60), Bosnia (86), Serbia (96) and Kosovo (99) all among the worst in Europe.   For the first time since the index’s inception in 2002, the average score out of 100 fell below 55, with journalism conditions classified as “difficult” or “very serious” in more than half of all countries assessed. RSF cited economic instability and media concentration as factors contributing to a worsening press freedom climate. In the Middle East, dozens of reporters have been killed during Israel’s military assault in Gaza, the organization said. Iran, Syria, China, North Korea and Eritrea were ranked the five worst countries in the world to be a journalist, with non-existent press freedom. The United States fell two places to 57. President Donald Trump’s administration is bringing about a “troubling deterioration” through funding cuts to public media and foreign aid, RSF added.

The European Union placed a strategic bet on Serbia’s lithium reserves to fuel its ambitious shift to electric vehicles. What it ended up getting in return were dirty politics and an environmental backlash so severe it is poisoning the Balkan nation’s relations with Brussels and blighting its aspirations to join the bloc. Serbia’s Jadar lithium deposit is estimated to contain enough of the soft, white metal to power 1 million EVs and cater to up to 25 percent of Europe’s demand, placing the continent’s largest lithium deposit at the heart of EU efforts to secure supplies of the critical raw materials needed to transition away from fossil fuels. No wonder, then, that a project to mine the deposit, developed by global giant Rio Tinto, stands to secure crucial backing from Brussels under the Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA), which aims to reduce the bloc’s heavy reliance on China for essential resources. Yet intense resistance to the project from Serbs, who worry about environmental damage and accuse their political leaders of corruption and cronyism, threatens to undermine support for EU membership that runs at around 40 percent. If the EU decides to support Jadar, it will signal that the bloc prioritizes its economic interests over fundamental values, and will also “have dramatic consequences on Serbia and the region,” said Aleksandar Matković, a Belgrade-based researcher who has organized protests against the mining project.  The protests have become tied up in a broader wave of anti-government unrest in Serbia, with tensions escalating further after a documentary, produced by a metallurgist who supports the Rio Tinto project, controversially labeled those who oppose it as Russian agents. That claim has been repeated on the pages of the Wall Street Journal, while activists have also faced allegations of acting as agents for the EU and China. “We cannot be agents of three different superpowers,” said Matković, who works at the Institute for Economic Sciences in Belgrade. On March 25, Industry Commissioner Stéphane Séjourné unveiled 47 strategic raw materials projects under the CRMA but unexpectedly didn’t include non-EU projects — leading many to wonder if this was because of the controversy surrounding Rio Tinto’s Jadar lithium mine.  The Commission declined to comment on whether concerns around Jadar had affected the decision to delay the announcement, but emphasized the broader ambitions around the EU’s strategic raw materials partnership with Serbia. That partnership “does in no way change the EU’s approach to the fundamentals of the EU accession process,” a spokesperson said. “What [it] can do is to bring investments in raw materials, batteries, and e-mobility that will boost economic development and [the] green and digital transition and create new job opportunities.” Shortly after Séjourné announced the EU-backed projects, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić met with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Council President António Costa for dinner in Brussels — and got an earful on Serbia’s democratic backsliding. The EU leaders expressed their displeasure at Vučić’s handling of student unrest and the wider protests against his rule that have persisted for more than four months. Vučić, for his part, has accused protesters of being funded by the West — resorting to a common trope in both Serbian politics and the controversy around the Jadar project: blaming outside interference. The EU leaders expressed their displeasure at Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić’s handling of student unrest and the wider protests against his rule that have persisted for more than four months. | Oliver Bunic/AFP via Getty Images “The country needs to deliver on EU reforms, in particular to take decisive steps towards media freedom, the fight against corruption, and … electoral reform,” von der Leyen wrote in a social media post after their meeting. All eyes are now on whether the Jadar mine will appear on the EU’s next list of CRMA projects. On March 25, Séjourné noted he “will be presenting the selected projects in the coming weeks,” adding that those outside the EU “will not disappear from the map.” If it receives EU backing, the project would gain better access to funding opportunities — though it wouldn’t enjoy the same benefits as EU-based projects, such as fast-tracked permits and direct financial support. European lawmaker Hildegaard Bentele believes that Jadar is “crucial for Serbia, it’s crucial for the EU, it’s crucial for the whole automotive sector.” Bentele, who represents Germany’s Christian Democrats, serves as the European Parliament’s representative on an advisory panel that reviews CRMA strategic projects with the European Commission. But for many in Serbia, the Jadar project now symbolizes the EU’s alignment with a mining giant at the expense of public concerns — prioritizing Germany’s industrial interests and the bloc’s race to close the EV gap with a dominant China. Meanwhile, popular mistrust has led many locals to believe that only the politicians will benefit. (Serbia’s score is the lowest within the Western Balkans in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index.) ORIGIN STORY In 2004, Rio Tinto geologists prospecting in the Jadar valley found a high-grade deposit combining boron and lithium, naming it “jadarite.” Fast forward to 2021: Rio Tinto announced it would be commencing operations on the project, committing over €2 billion. That announcement sparked massive protests, forcing the government to suspend the Jadar undertaking. Ana Brnabić, the prime minister of the day, declared it the “absolute end” of Rio Tinto’s plans. But in July 2024, Serbia’s constitutional court allowed the project to resume. A week later, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and European Commission Vice President Maroš Šefčovič flew to Belgrade for the signing of a strategic partnership between Serbia and the EU on sustainable raw materials, battery value chains and electric vehicles. Šefčovič, now the EU’s trade commissioner, called the project a “testament to our shared commitment to driving forward the green transition.” Scholz described it as a “truly European project,” stressing that “above all, we need these batteries.” MEASURING THE OPPOSITION But why, exactly, is Jadar so controversial? Despite Rio Tinto’s attempts to be transparent about the project to assuage environmental concerns, resistance to breaking ground on the underground mine persists. “There is absolutely no place for lithium mining in a fertile valley, with sources of spring water, groundwater, a valley that feeds people, where farmers have tilled land for seven or eight generations,” said Bojana Novaković, leader of environmental NGO Marš sa Drine (March on the Drina). If poorly managed, lithium extraction could contaminate groundwater reserves and farmland vital to the Jadar valley’s predominantly agricultural community, green critics contend.  Rio Tinto insists the mine won’t pose the same environmental risks as others. | Marko Djokovic/AFP via Getty Images Nebojša Petković from the Ne Damo Jadar (We Won’t Surrender Jadar) association, who describes himself as pro-European, believes the EU isn’t interested in Serbia’s becoming a member. He accused the bloc of only caring about its own profits: “They want to turn us into their resource base and [a] landfill of Europe,” he said, branding the mine a strategic project to “destroy” Serbia.  Rio Tinto insists the mine won’t pose the same environmental risks as others, because it will use dry rather than liquid waste storage methods. Mining waste, known as tailings, typically consists of fine rock particles, water, and sometimes chemicals — raising concerns about potential leaks or dam collapses. “Our tailings are solid like a brick,” says Chad Blewitt, managing director of the Jadar project. “It cannot wash away, it cannot collapse.” However, dry waste isn’t immune to water exposure, warns Diego Marin from the European Environmental Bureau (EEB) network. The Jadar valley is prone to flooding — most notably in 2014, when inundations killed 57 people in Serbia and triggered the release of heavy metals from mine sites in the area after a dam broke. While dry tailings are “definitely a better practice,” Marin notes they are “still not safe from ecological concerns,” including dust emissions and potential heavy metal contamination.  A report from the Renewables and Environmental Regulatory Institute in Belgrade (RERI) found that the current environmental impact assessment scoping request from Rio Tinto does not cover mining waste disposal — only the underground mine. “The impact of this waste has not been adequately assessed, nor were adequate measures suggested for preventing, removing, or reducing any significant adverse impact on the environment,” said Mirko Popović, program director at RERI.  One proposed safeguard is to bring in an auditor, such as the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA). Rio Tinto has expressed willingness to allow IRMA to produce an external report on Jadar, but IRMA Director Aimee Boulanger told POLITICO that issuing a verdict on a mine that doesn’t yet exist would be difficult.  What’s more, the relationship between Rio Tinto and local residents may already have reached the point of no return. “It’s really difficult to regain trust when trust is already broken,” said Boulanger, who supports the involvement of IRMA but notes there has been no formal approach from the company so far. In a statement to POLITICO after this story was first published, project chief Blewitt rejected those assertions. “Rio Tinto strongly refutes the unsubstantiated claims that the Jadar Project will have a negative impact on agriculture and water quality. Such allegations are baseless and ignore the robust draft Environmental Impact Assessments which Rio Tinto has made available to the public,” Blewitt said. “These studies prove that agriculture can continue to prosper above ground while mining operations are done safely below the surface, just as modern cities exist above underground metro systems. Similarly, the project’s plans for dry tailings for waste would guarantee local water is not impacted.” THE GERMAN INTEREST At the core of Europe’s push to compete with China in the EV sector lies the fate of Germany’s auto industry, which plays a powerful role in shaping Berlin’s stance — and by extension influencing EU policy priorities.  The challenge, however, is that China already has a stranglehold on the critical raw materials pipeline and subsequent battery production, enabling its battery-makers to produce cheaply at scale. Swedish company Northvolt was once seen as the continent’s best hope, but its demise leaves the German car industry reliant on Chinese suppliers.  It’s a familiar quandary for German automakers, which in order to enter the Chinese market in the 1980s were required to set up joint ventures with domestic companies and share their technology. For the likes of Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Volkswagen, China’s subsequent economic growth has made the country’s market their most lucrative, helping to support costly factories and labor in Europe.  Europe’s lack of raw materials mining is “making the domestic industry reliant on other countries and external factors for their sourcing … it is essential that the European Union supports the development of the European battery value chain,” EU car lobby ACEA said in a statement on the CRMA. But securing minerals is just one piece of the puzzle. German automakers are falling behind Chinese EV incumbents on technology and costs, putting their market share — and earnings — at risk in China. The pressure is being felt back home, with layoffs across the industry. In March, Audi announced it would slash 7,500 jobs by 2029, part of the Volkswagen Group’s plan to cut costs and ease the transition to EVs. While not key to the success of EU automakers, projects like Jadar are a test of the bloc’s ability to wriggle free of China’s economic dominance within its decoupling strategy.  “For Serbia, a long-standing candidate for EU membership, the agreement … represents an opportunity to move closer to Europe and to push ahead with membership negotiations,” said a spokesperson for the German Association of the Automotive Industry, which represents industry giants such as BMW and Mercedes-Benz. DOCUMENTARY DRAMA The European Parliament entered the controversy in February by hosting a screening of “Not In My Country,” a documentary alleging that local resistance and national protests against lithium mining in Serbia had arisen due to ignorance or misinformation from Russia. The event, which was protested by 100 people in Brussels, was followed by a debate featuring Bentele, Matković and Marijanti Babić, Rio Tinto’s country head for Serbia. The film, made by Peter Tom Jones, director of the KU Leuven Institute for Sustainable Metals and Minerals (SIM2), was criticized by the protesters for promoting the project and excluding its critics. But Jones defended his work and accused the project’s opponents of refusing to participate. “That’s a very deliberate strategy of the opponents not to engage, not to be part of debates,” he told POLITICO. In an open letter signed by academics, researchers and students in Belgium to stop the documentary from being screened at Docville, an international documentary film festival in Leuven, the signatories called it “a mouthpiece to state propaganda, it also echoes the corporate interests of Rio Tinto, buttressing its strategic lobbying efforts for lithium mining.” The screening at Docville was canceled amid fears it could attract protesters. For many Serbs, the EU’s pending seal of approval for Rio Tinto feels like complicity in a system where profit trumps citizen involvement. | Marko Djokovic/AFP via Getty Images Nik Völker, a researcher at MiningWatch Portugal, pointed out that the Leuven institute “holds various bilateral agreements with lithium mining and processing partners in Europe prominently featured, including mining major Rio Tinto in Serbia.” A statement released by SIM2 and Jones after the screening at the European Parliament denied allegations that he had collaborated with or received funding from Rio Tinto for the documentary. Instead, they said, it was co-developed and fully financed by the University of Leuven. “As a consequence, no outside party or company, whether Rio Tinto, ElevenEs, Stellantis or otherwise, has had any influence on the making of this documentary,” Jones said. “Any allegations suggesting that this is the case because there are company collaborations in place in terms of research projects are simply false.” POLITICO approached Rio Tinto regarding the film, but the company declined to comment.  SERBIA’S FUTURE The fight over the Jadar mine is not just about lithium — it’s also about who gets to define Serbia’s future. For many Serbs, the EU’s pending seal of approval for Rio Tinto feels like complicity in a system where profit trumps citizen involvement, and where environmental concerns are brushed aside in favor of geopolitical interests. And Serbia’s zigzag foreign policy between major powers has created tensions both domestically and externally. The EU is now increasingly pressuring Serbia to align more clearly with its interests. The bells are ringing on resource cronyism, where state and corporate interests converge while the public is shut out of the debate. “I honestly believe it’s political suicide to give this project the time of day and to keep pushing out for any, any kind of political faction within Serbia particularly, but also Europe, because I’ve never seen a project with this much dissent against it,” said Novaković of Marš sa Drine. Serbia’s aspiration to join the EU now hangs in the balance of the bloc’s push for raw materials. Mining colony or not, the Western Balkan country faces further chaos amidst its instability. Vučić announced on April 6 that a new Serbian government, led by political novice Đuro Macut, would take office by April 18. If lawmakers don’t approve Macut, Vučić looks likely to call snap elections in early June. The verdict of voters will have a crucial impact not only on the fate of the Jadar project — but also on the Balkan nation’s European course. Jordyn Dahl contributed reporting. Graphic by Giovanna Coi. This story has been updated with further comment from Rio Tinto and a response from the European Commission.