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.

The first American pope is on a collision course with U.S. President Donald Trump. The latest fault line between the Vatican and the White House emerged on Sunday. Shortly after Trump suggested his administration could “run” Venezuela, the Chicago-born Pope Leo XIV appeared at the Angelus window overlooking St. Peter’s Square to deliver an address calling for the safeguarding of the “country’s sovereignty.” For MAGA-aligned conservatives, this is now part of an unwelcome pattern. While Leo is less combative in tone toward Trump than his predecessor Francis, his priorities are rekindling familiar battles in the culture war with the U.S. administration on topics such as immigration and deportations, LGBTQ+ rights and climate change. As the leader of a global community of 1.4 billion Catholics, Leo has a rare position of influence to challenge Trump’s policies, and the U.S. president has to tread with uncustomary caution in confronting him. Trump traditionally relishes blasting his critics with invective but has been unusually restrained in response to Leo’s criticism, in part because he counts a large number of Catholics among his core electorate. “[Leo] is not looking for a fight like Francis, who sometimes enjoyed a fight,” said Chris White, author of “Pope Leo XIV: Inside the Conclave and the Dawn of a New Papacy.” “But while different in style, he is clearly a continuation of Francis in substance. Initially there was a wait-and-see approach, but for many MAGA Catholics, Leo challenges core beliefs.” In recent months, migration has become the main combat zone between the liberal pope and U.S. conservatives. Leo called on his senior clergy to speak out on the need to protect vulnerable migrants, and U.S. bishops denounced the “dehumanizing rhetoric and violence” leveled at people targeted by Trump’s deportation policies. Leo later went public with an appeal that migrants in the U.S. be treated “humanely” and “with dignity.” Leo’s support emboldened Florida bishops to call for a Christmas reprieve from Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids. “Don’t be the Grinch that stole Christmas,” said Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami. As if evidence were needed of America’s polarization on this topic, however, the Department of Homeland Security described their arrests as a “Christmas gift to Americans.” Leo also conspicuously removed Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Trump’s preferred candidate for pope and a favorite on the conservative Fox News channel, from a key post as archbishop of New York, replacing him with a bishop known for pro-migrant views. This cuts to the heart of the moral dilemma for a divided U.S. Catholic community. For Trump, Catholics are hardly a sideshow as they constitute 22 percent of his electorate, according to a poll by the Pew Research Center. While the pope appeals to liberal causes, however, many MAGA Catholics take a far stricter line on topics such as migration, sexuality and climate change. To his critics from the conservative Catholic MAGA camp, such as Trump’s former strategist Steve Bannon, the pope is anathema. U.S.-born Pope Leo XIV appeared at the Angelus window overlooking St. Peter’s Square to deliver an address calling for the safeguarding of Venezuela’s “sovereignty.” | Stefano Costantino/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images Last year the pope blessed a chunk of ice from Greenland and criticized political leaders who ignore climate change. He said supporters of the death penalty could not credibly claim to be pro-life, and argued that Christians and Muslims could be friends. He has also signaled a more tolerant posture toward LGBTQ+ Catholics, permitting an LGBTQ+ pilgrimage to St Peter’s Basilica. Small wonder, then, that Trump confidante and conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer branded Leo the “woke Marxist pope.” Trump-aligned Catholic conservatives have denounced him as “secularist,” “globalist” and even “apostate.” Far-right pundit Jack Posobiec has called him “anti-Trump.” “Some popes are a blessing. Some popes are a penance,” Posobiec wrote on X. PONTIFF FROM CHICAGO There were early hopes that Leo might build bridges with U.S. hardliners. He’s an American, after all: He wears an Apple watch and follows baseball, and American Catholics can hardly dismiss him as as foreign. The Argentine Francis, by contrast, was often portrayed by critics as anti-American and shaped by the politics of poorer nations. Leo can’t be waved away so easily. Early in his papacy, Leo also showed signs he was keen to steady the church after years of internal conflict, and threw some bones to conservatives such as allowing a Latin Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica and wearing more ornate papal vestments. But the traditionalists were not reassured. Benjamin Harnwell, the Vatican correspondent for the MAGA-aligned War Room podcast, said conservatives were immediately skeptical of Leo. “From day one, we have been telling our base to be wary: Do not be deceived,” he said. Leo, Harnwell added, is “fully signed up to Francis’ agenda … but [is] more strategic and intelligent.” After the conclave that appointed Leo, former Trump strategist Bannon told POLITICO that Leo’s election was “the worst choice for MAGA Catholics” and “an anti-Trump vote by the globalists of the Curia.” Trump had a long-running feud with Francis, who condemned the U.S. president’s border wall and criticized his migration policies. Francis appeared to enjoy that sparring, but Leo is a very different character. More retiring by nature, he shies away from confrontation. But his resolve in defending what he sees as non-negotiable moral principles, particularly the protection of the weak, is increasingly colliding with the core assumptions of Trumpism. Trump loomed large during the conclave, with an AI-generated video depicting himself as pope. The gesture was seen by some Vatican insiders as a “mafia-style” warning to elect someone who would not criticize him, Vatican-watcher Elisabetta Piqué wrote in a new book “The Election of Pope Leo XIV: The Last Surprise of Pope Francis.” NOT PERSONAL Leo was not chosen expressly as an anti-Trump figure, according to a Vatican official. Rather, his nationality was likely seen by some cardinals as “reassuring,” suggesting he would be accountable and transparent in governance and finances. But while Leo does not seem to be actively seeking a confrontation with Trump, the world views of the two men seem incompatible. “He will avoid personalizing,” said the same Vatican official. “He will state church teaching, not in reaction to Trump, but as things he would say anyway.” Despite the attacks on Leo from his allies, Trump himself has also appeared wary of a direct showdown. When asked about the pope in a POLITICO interview, Trump was more keen to discuss meeting the pontiff’s brother in Florida, whom he described as “serious MAGA.” When pressed on whether he would meet the pope himself, he finally replied: “Sure, I will. Why not?” The potential for conflict will come into sharper focus as Leo hosts a summit called an extraordinary consistory this week, the first of its kind since 2014, which is expected to provide a blueprint for the future direction of the church. His first publication on social issues, such as inequality and migration, is also expected in the next few months. “He will use [the summit] to talk about what he sees as the future,” said a diplomat posted to the Vatican. “It will give his collaborators a sense of where he is going. He could use it as a sounding board, or ask them to suggest solutions.” It’s safe to assume Leo won’t be unveiling a MAGA-aligned agenda. The ultimate balance of power may also favor the pope. Trump must contend with elections and political clocks; Leo, elected for life, does not. At 70, and as a tennis player in good health, Leo appears positioned to shape Catholic politics well after Trump’s moment has passed. “He is not in a hurry,” the Vatican official said. “Time is on his side.”

Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony says Hungarian police have recommended he be charged for defying a government ban and allowing a Pride parade to take place earlier this year in Hungary’s capital. “The police concluded their investigation against me in connection with the Budapest Pride march in June with a recommendation to press charges,” he said in a video posted on Facebook Thursday. “They accuse me of violating the [new law on] freedom of assembly, which is completely absurd.” Pride gatherings, rooted in protest and celebration, are held around the world to promote the rights and freedom of expression of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people. In March, however, Hungary adopted a law restricting the freedom of assembly in cases involving the public portrayal to children of “divergence from self-identity corresponding to sex at birth, sex change or homosexuality.” The Budapest Pride parade was subsequently banned based on the legislation. But political opponents say the government banned Pride in an attempt to create a wedge issue to stay in power. Hungary faces parliamentary elections in April 2026, and in the most recent poll, conducted from Nov. 21-28 by 21 Research Centre, a Budapest-based think tank, the country’s ruling Fidesz party was on track for 40 percent support behind the challenger, Tisza, at 47 percent of decided voters. Karácsony, a Green politician and a strong opponent of nationalist Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, rejected the federal government’s edict and allowed the rally to proceed in June. Several EU politicians joined the event to show solidarity with LGBTQ+ people, even though Orbán warned organizers and attendees that legal consequences would follow. The Budapest mayor was questioned by Hungary’s state police in August, and on Thursday said he’d received a formal notice in the case. “In a system where the law protects power rather than people, in this system that stifles free communities, it was inevitable that sooner or later, as the mayor of a free city, they would take criminal action against me,” Karácsony said. He added: “I am proud that I took every political risk for the sake of my city’s freedom, and I stand proudly before the court to defend my own freedom and that of my city.” The European Green Party backed Karácsony. “The fact that the police are requesting to indict the Green Mayor of Budapest Gergely Karácsony for supporting Budapest Pride 2025 is a shocking misuse of state power by the Orbán regime,” the party’s co-chair, Vula Tsetsi, said in a press release. Karácsony is one of the ’10 to Watch’ in the POLITICO 28: Class of 2026. The Rendőrség, Hungary’s national police force, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Csongor Körömi and Max Griera Andreu contributed to this report.

WARSAW — Poland’s government on Friday put forward a proposal for civil partnerships that strains the ruling coalition, disappoints LGBTQ+ rights activists and has little chance of being signed into law by right-wing President Karol Nawrocki. The issue has haunted the four-party coalition headed by Prime Minister Donald Tusk since it won power from the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party two years ago.  Efforts to move on the issue were blocked by frictions within Tusk’s four-party coalition, with the resistance led by the agrarian Polish People’s Party (PSL). That forced the government to put forward a bill that tries to keep PSL on board, but does little to satisfy the coalition’s centrist and left-wing backers because it offers a civil partnership status that falls well short of marriage. Tusk underlined the unsatisfactory compromise that produced the legislation. “The nature of this coalition … lead to a situation where either there is complete deadlock and nothing can be done, or a compromise is sought that will certainly make people’s lives easier and more bearable … although no one will be jumping for joy,” Tusk told reporters. Nawrocki, a PiS ally, has long made clear he would oppose legal provisions establishing “quasi-marriages” or otherwise threatening the traditional institution. Jarosław Kaczyński, the leader of PiS, denounced the bill on Friday, saying it was not only “grossly unconstitutional, but aims to replace traditional marriage with pseudo-unions.” PSL and PiS are long-time competitors for votes in the conservative Polish countryside, where the Roman Catholic Church still holds sway. Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, the leader of PSL, said he does not find that the proposed civil union status mirrors marriage. “It makes life easier,” he said. “It’s not a proposal of our dreams, it’s a proposal of the coalition reality and with Karol Nawrocki as president,” Katarzyna Kotula, the Left’s minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, told a press briefing in the parliament Friday, referring to months of talks with PSL on the issue. INOFFENSIVE LEGISLATION As officials presented the basics of the proposal, Kotula treaded carefully, making no direct mention of LGBTQ+ families, marriage, or adoption — all no-goes for the agrarians. “The proposal excludes any provisions related to children, such as custody or adoption. There only are practical measures intended to make life easier for Poles,” Urszula Pasławska, a PSL MP, told the briefing.  “The law would not, in any way, infringe upon or undermine the institution of marriage,” Pasławska added. Under Poland’s constitution, marriage is defined as “a union between a woman and a man.” Poles’ support for marriage equality ranges from 40 to 50 percent, depending on the poll, but backing for civil partnerships is higher. The draft legislative proposal, titled somewhat awkwardly the “law on the status of a close person in a relationship and on a cohabitation agreement,” seeks to define rights and obligations between partners in an informal relationship. It doesn’t specify the sex of the partners. The draft outlines provisions on “mutual respect, support, care, loyalty and cooperation for the common good,” Kotula said. It guarantees the right to shared housing, mutual alimony, access to each other’s medical information, exemption from inheritance and donation taxes, and joint tax filing for couples who declare shared property. The draft would also provide relief from civil transaction taxes, entitlement to a survivor’s pension, inheritance under a will, access to health insurance for both partners and care leave. But that falls far short of allowing same-sex couples to get married — something that’s increasingly common in other EU countries. The bill got tepid praise from the Campaign Against Homophobia, an NGO. “It proposes modest, cautious measures that offer a little bit of safety to those who previously had none. It’s a step forward — but so small and careful that it’s hard to see in it the courage that all families in Poland truly deserve,” it said. In the campaign’s latest annual ranking of LGBTQ+ rights, Poland is the second-lowest in the EU, a slight increase from previous years when it was last. LGBTQ+ rights organization Miłość Nie Wyklucza (Love Does Not Exclude) said the proposal does contain some progressive solutions, but it creates the danger of freezing further progress, said Hubert Sobecki, one of the group’s leaders. “What am I supposed to do now, kiss their hands in gratitude? We’re going to have two kinds of people in Poland. Those who can marry legally and enjoy all that comes with it and those who don’t,” Sobecki said.

VATICAN CITY — The technicolor kaftan, leopard-print boots and silver, glitter-studded parasol suggested they were no ordinary pilgrims. An elderly and diminutive French nun, arm-in-arm with a statuesque Italian in cut-off denim shorts and a rainbow-hued handbag, helped lead hundreds of LGBT Catholics into St. Peter’s Square in Rome on Saturday. The group represents the first pilgrimage for gay and trans people to be hosted by the Vatican as part of a Jubilee Holy Year. The Vatican hosts a Jubilee Year for pilgrims about every 25 years, when Catholics come to Rome to ask for forgiveness. “This is a super-significant moment, the first LGBT jubilee in history, you can imagine how important that is for both LGBT Christians and the Church,” said Caterina, a health care worker from Padua carrying a rainbow fan and wearing a T-shirt that said “In love there is no fear.” As millions of Catholics wait to see how Pope Leo XIV will continue the legacy of his predecessor Pope Francis, who died in April, LGBT Catholics are particularly anxious about whether the new pontiff will echo the welcome extended by Francis. Catholic teaching states that same-sex relations are “intrinsically disordered,” a source of pain to LGBT Catholics. Francis promoted an inclusive stance. When asked about a gay priest, he famously replied “Who am I to judge?” and allowed priests to bless same-sex couples, which triggered a conservative backlash. Pope Leo’s outlook is more uncertain. At a synod or Vatican conference in 2012, Leo gave a speech about how Western media was promoting “anti-Christian lifestyle choices” such as same-sex marriage. When he became a cardinal in 2023, he said that the Church “wants to be more “welcoming and open,” but he emphasized that doctrine had not changed. At the conclave where he was elected, cardinals expressed concerns at some of Francis’ moves to greater openness, seen as ambiguous, and even threatening by some. Still the pilgrims were full of optimism for greater acceptance. “We have been overlooked for so long. It is very good to show it is possible to be both LGBT and Catholic,” said Kaitlyn, an activist from the diocese of Westminster in London. Guillermo, an El Salvadorean who travelled from London to attend, said that after Francis died group members were worried that the pilgrimage would be cancelled. “It’s a very special moment as it’s the first time the LGBT community has been invited — that is very meaningful. We all hope Leo will carry on the inclusiveness of Francis.” It has been a case of interpreting the smoke signals. Before the procession, the pilgrims attended a mass presided over by a high-ranking prelate. That is “a clear sign of change,” said American activist Father James Martin, founder of Outreach, a church ministering to LGBTQ people. “I cannot imagine that happening before Francis or Leo. And it generates great hope.” In another suggestion of possible opening, Leo personally received Father Martin. “The message I received is that he wants to continue the legacy of Pope Francis, which is one of openness and listening,” Father Martin told POLITICO, adding that the meeting was “deeply consoling and very encouraging.” But opponents of gay and transgender rights dismissed the event’s significance. Simone Pillon, an Italian senator with the far-right League party, said that welcoming LGBT people as sinners does not mean that Church teaching will change. Pope Francis didn’t change teaching, he said, but his gestures were misinterpreted by the media. It was “a clear signal, he claimed that Pope Leo decided not to meet the group of of gay and trans pilgrims. “The Jubilee is a moment of forgiveness, so I don’t have any problem with the event; we are all sinners,” he said. “What is frankly annoying is that anyone would use the Jubilee to promote an ideology which contains nothing of Christianity. … The church has always welcomed everyone, but to be in communion with God means following the commandments, also in sexual conduct,” he said.

BERLIN — A Berlin court ruled Tuesday that Germany’s conservative-led government is obliged to resettle an Afghan family stranded in Pakistan following the effective suspension of a program to provide refuge to endangered Afghans. The ruling constitutes another setback for conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s vow to drastically curtail the influx of asylum-seekers into Germany. After Merz became chancellor, his government effectively suspended a resettlement program for Afghans deemed particularly vulnerable following the Taliban’s return to power in 2021. That decision stranded some 2,400 Afghans who German authorities had already committed to resettling; those Afghans are in Pakistan awaiting flights to Germany. The German government “has legally bound itself through final, unrevoked admission commitments,” the Berlin court said in its ruling, adding that “the applicants had made a credible case that they were threatened with deportation from Pakistan to Afghanistan, where they would face danger to life and limb.” The plaintiffs in the case were an Afghan woman who, before the Taliban takeover, worked as a law lecturer and deputy head of the election commission along with her family. They are awaiting resettlement in Pakistan along with women’s rights activists, LGBTQ+ people and others deemed endangered under Taliban rule. It’s unclear whether the government will consider the ruling as establishing a precedent for similar cases. The interior ministry and the foreign ministry — who are responsible for the resettlement program — did not immediately respond to requests for comment. “The court’s decision only legally binds the parties involved in the legal dispute, i.e. the applicant and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),” a spokesperson for the court said. “At the same time, according to the court’s decision, the FRG remains bound to … promises of admission, such as those given here.” More legal decisions are expected as Afghans challenge the government’s suspension of the resettlement program. In a similar blow to Merz’s promised migration crackdown, a court last month ruled that that the German government’s push to turn away asylum-seekers at the country’s borders is unlawful. Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt, however, challenged the scope of the court’s decision, suggesting it only applied to the three complainants in the case. The government continues to defend the border checks.

Listen on * Spotify * Apple Music * Amazon Music Europe baked, the Atomium shut early — and Brussels finally unveiled its long-delayed climate target. Host Sarah Wheaton speaks with POLITICO Climate Reporter Louise Guillot, Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Nick Vinocur and EU Politics Reporter Max Griera about the EU’s new 2040 goal: What a 90 percent emissions cut really means, why critics say it’s already being softened, and how Denmark’s presidency of the Council of the EU plans to juggle climate, migration and more amid stormy politics. We also pull back the curtain on Ursula von der Leyen’s powerful gatekeeper, Bjoern Seibert — and on Viktor Orbán’s crackdown on Budapest Pride. Later, POLITICO’s Cities Correspondent Aitor Hernández-Morales joins to explore how Europe’s cities are navigating the heat — both political and literal — and why so many mayors are now turning to Brussels for help with urgent issues like housing.

BERLIN — Extreme-right groups in Germany are increasingly targeting LGBTQ+ people as part of a systematic effort to gain popularity and win new recruits. Right-wing extremists have mobilized against Pride events scheduled for this summer, planning counter demonstrations that purport to celebrate traditional, heterosexual relationships. It’s a message, experts say, that is drawing a growing number of young Germans to the extreme right. In the eastern German town of Bautzen, organizers of a local Pride parade set to take place in August are preparing for a large counter demonstration of right-wing extremists, many of them teenagers. “Man and woman. The true foundation of life,” reads an online post advertising one of the protests. Organizers of the Pride event, which celebrates Christopher Street Day (CSD) — a commemoration of the 1969 Stonewall Riots in New York City that became a catalyst for the international gay rights movement — say participants face threats and intimidation.  “The threats are much harsher online because of the supposed anonymity,” said Lea Krause, one of the CSD parade organizers in Bautzen. “But it’s tough on the street too, simply because you’re face to face with people. And they know exactly who you are, and you also know who they are.” German federal police say CSD events — of which there are some 200 scheduled across Germany during the spring and summer — are increasingly targeted by neo-Nazi and other right-wing extremist groups. Since the middle of last year, “new youth groups have emerged in the right-wing scene” that target the CSD events, Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office said in an emailed statement. A CSD parade in the Bavarian city of Regensburg planned for July had to be rescheduled due to threats against its organizers. In the small eastern German city of Wernigerode, a 20-year-old man allegedly threatened to open fire on the local CSD event. Police later found ammunition at the suspect’s house, according to media reports. At a CSD parade in June on the outskirts of Berlin, police said they prevented a violent attack on participants amid a counter-demonstration planned by a right-wing extremist group. During last year’s CSD parade in Bautzen, nearly 700 right-wing extremists gathered to disrupt the celebration, which drew about 1,000 people amid a heavy police presence. Many of the counter-demonstrators were minors, according to a report from regional domestic intelligence authorities. “I’ve had enough, enough of this Pride month, enough of all the rainbow flags hanging everywhere: on schools, town halls, even in the German armed forces,” Dan-Odin Wölfer, a member of the extreme-right group organizing the counter-demonstration in Bautzen this year, said in an online video. The month, he went on, “doesn’t belong to the rainbow. It belongs to us. It belongs to the people who built this country, who stand up, work and fight every day for their families, for their homeland. We are proud of our country.” Krause, the CSD event organizer in Bautzen, said she’s confident the police will be able to protect this year’s march, but feared extreme-right violence on the sidelines. Traveling to and from the event alone or in small groups, she said, “is of course dangerous.” THE EXTREME RIGHT’S ALTERNATIVE PRIDE The targeting of Pride events is part of a larger wave of radicalization within German society that is particularly affecting the country’s youth, authorities say. Extreme-right crimes surged by nearly 50 percent last year, according to police figures. “We have to realize that in society as a whole, and among a share of young people, we see a shift to the right and an increase in the acceptance of violence,” Holger Münch, the head of Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office, told reporters when presenting the crime statistics in May. At the same time, Germany’s far right is increasingly turning its focus to gay pride, rebranding Pride month as Stolzmonat, with a focus on the traditional family and national pride. “Stolzmonat is an alternative that seeks to consciously counter the forced change … setting an example of traditional values, family ties and stability in uncertain times,” reads a statement on the website of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt. Domestic intelligence authorities there classify the party branch as extremist. The targeting of Pride events is part of a larger wave of radicalization within German society that is particularly affecting the country’s youth, authorities say. | Clemens Bilan/EPA “For a long time, the German far right focused on migration, Islam, EU skepticism and the coronavirus,” said Sabine Volk, a researcher at the Institute for Research on Far-Right Extremism at the University of Tübingen. “But in the aftermath of the pandemic, we have seen an increased focus on queer-phobia, anti-LGBTQ+ discourse and, since last year, protest activities.” Such discourse is particularly effective at radicalizing young men who don’t start out identifying with right-wing extremist ideology, Volk said. Recruiting often happens within seemingly apolitical organizations, including at combat sports and mixed martial arts clubs. “If organizations are not clearly attributable to the far-right spectrum, that seems to make them more attractive to young people who are not necessarily attracted to a party, but to a shared experience,” Volk said. In those settings, extreme-right activists often begin radicalizing young people by promoting what they portray as traditional values. Organizers of the extreme-right counter-demonstration in the eastern German town of Bautzen, for instance, say the event is about upholding “the family as the core of our community” and “respect for the natural order.” Krause, Bautzen’s CSD event organizer, said she expected the counter-demonstration to be bigger this year. At the same time, she believes the CSD parade itself will draw many more participants. “It is very nice to see that some people in Bautzen really want to go through with this,” Krause said. “We are very, very brave and empowered to keep on going.”

Senior Spanish government officials accused the European Commission of “complicity” with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s ban on an LGBTQ+ Pride parade in Budapest this weekend. The officials criticized the Commission under President Ursula von der Leyen for failing to challenge before the European Court of Justice the Hungarian law on which Orbán based his ban, adding to the frustrations of EU political parties, civil society organizations and Hungarian activists.  “First, the government of Spain is here, defending human rights and democracy. Second, denouncing the complicity of the European Commission. And third, sending a message not only to Europe, but to the rest of the world,” Spanish Deputy Prime Minister Yolanda Díaz told POLITICO in Budapest during a European Green Party rally ahead of the Pride parade.  “What we represent as the government of Spain, from Budapest to the world, is hope … the far right always comes from the margins and goes to the center,” she said. “They are not questioning the rights of the LGBTI people alone; they go from the rights of the LGBTI people and women to the center until democracy is colonized,” she said. This past March, Orbán’s government passed legislation prohibiting public assemblies that “promote or display” the LGBTQ+ community, under the pretext of protecting children. Effectively banning Pride celebrations nationwide, the measure set up Budapest as the epicenter of Europe’s culture war, with European politicians condemning the move and government officials and elected lawmakers descending on the Hungarian capital to protest.  European Commission chief von der Leyen urged Orbán to allow Pride to go ahead, but the EU executive is still deciding whether to launch a court case over the Hungarian bill. The Commission had already challenged a previous Hungarian law banning LGBTI+ content for children in 2021, and is now waiting for the final court ruling on that. EU Equality Commissioner Hadja Lahbib defended the Commission, citing the challenge to the 2021 law, a challenge the high court’s Advocate General Tamara Ćapeta supported in an opinion in early June. “So we are analyzing the law … you know we have to be strategic sometimes,” Lahbib told a press conference in Budapest the day before the Pride parade.  “You have to choose your moments and we don’t want to interfere, neither on national affairs and competencies, neither during a procedure which is sensitive,” Lahbib said. ‘WORDS ARE NOT ENOUGH’ Díaz’s colleague, Culture Minister Ernest Urtasun, who also joined the march in Budapest, said Spain’s government is “very, very concerned” about the issue. “It is a duty” of all progressive governments to “stand in the way” when there are attacks against fundamental rights, he added.  Echoing Díaz, Uratsun said the government in Madrid expects “the European Commission to be strong in defending EU law.” “We would like the European Commission to be much stronger than it has been doing in the last months,” Uratsun said. The Spanish delegation was joined in Budapest by government representatives from France and the Netherlands, as well as lawmakers from dozens of other countries and mayors from major European capitals.  During a press conference Saturday morning, the chairs of the European Parliament Socialist, Left, Green and liberal groups also urged the Commission to launch a challenge on the law. “Words are not enough,” said Socialists and Democrats group leader Iratxe García Pérez. “We need action. And action means that the European Commission start the infringement procedure against this law,” García Pérez said. Civil society organizations are also calling on the European Commission to intervene against Hungary’s potential use of facial recognition technology to identify attendees in the Pride parade. Dozens of digital and human rights groups said Hungary’s use of the technology is “a glaring violation” of the European Union’s Artificial Intelligence Act, in an open letter to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and her colleagues in charge of technology, rule of law and equality, as first reported by POLITICO. In a joint declaration at the end of May, 20 member states including Spain, Germany and France stated their concerns regarding Orbán’s crackdown on fundamental rights, and called on the Commission to use all means at its disposal to prevent democratic backsliding in Hungary. 

VATICAN CITY — The new American pope is looking to his MAGA compatriots to shore up the Vatican’s finances after decades of scandal and mismanagement. The conclave that brought Pope Leo to power was overshadowed by painful divisions within the Church, a war between modernity and tradition, and bitter reflections over his predecessor’s complex legacy. But more prosaically it was also plagued by angst over a serious fiscal squeeze that is forcing the spiritual leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics to moonlight as a fundraiser. Despite the Vatican’s vaults of priceless masterpieces, Leo has ascended to the papal throne amid a steepening liquidity crisis aggravated by a major downturn in donations from the U.S., making it increasingly difficult for the city state to function. Leo needs to fix it — but to do so he needs to keep traditionalist U.S. Catholics on side. Insiders say that Leo was elected in part because as an American he exuded an Anglo-Saxon financial seriousness. He was also seen as well positioned to bring back donations that have dried up thanks to persistent scandal and the hemorrhaging of support from powerful American Catholic conservatives.  Already, the gambit seems to be working. “Talking to some of the biggest donors in the country, they’re absolutely thrilled,” said one conservative Catholic leader in the U.S., granted anonymity to speak candidly. “I don’t know that they’re already writing their checks. I don’t see that necessarily yet. But as far as their optimism and excitement, it’s a 10 out of 10 — absolutely.” A boost to donations is desperately needed. According to Reuters, the latest internal figures show the Vatican ran a deficit of €83 million in 2024, more than double the €38 million reported in its last-published financial report in 2022.  The annual shortfall adds to liabilities including half-a-billion in pension obligations to the Vatican’s superannuated beneficiaries and past losses from the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR), the Holy See’s scandal-riddled investment vehicle, also known as the Vatican Bank. The Vatican’s income is mainly derived from property assets and donations including from bishops and Peter’s Pence, the annual June collection by churches for the pope’s “mission” and charitable works. But donation revenue has fallen with increasing secularism and financial scandals. Donors from the U.S., the number one contributing country, were put off by Francis’ more liberal teachings on LGBTQ+ and marriage as well as corruption scandals including a botched investment by the Vatican’s top financial institution in London real estate, said John Yep, president of Catholics for Catholics, a conservative NGO.   ‘VERY EQUILIBRATED’ The momentum behind Leo as a bridge-builder emerged in pre-conclave lobbying sessions, when cardinals began to envisage that Leo’s alignment on hot-button conservative issues would help appease U.S. Catholics. Leo went on to secure more than 100 votes in the conclave, two well-placed insiders say, indicating that his support was broad and included right-leaning clerics.  A man holds a US flag in St. Peter’s Square, Vatican City, 08 May 2025. | Angelo Carconi/EPA-EFE Pope Leo “is a very equilibrated person, and he can give something to the right, without shifting the pontificate to the right,” one cardinal told POLITICO.  According to the cardinal quoted above, his constituency even included several of the die-hard Francis critics led by the arch-traditionalist American cardinal Raymond Burke. Burke himself reportedly received Leo — then Cardinal Robert Prevost — in his Vatican-owned apartment before the conclave, and spoke with him again after, according to one person familiar with the matter. Burke’s office could not reached for comment. In turn, Leo has signaled a willingness to address traditionalist priorities, drawing particular praise for his decision to move back to the original papal residence from his predecessor’s basic lodgings, as well as for his penchant for singing in Latin. This year’s conclave also happened to coincide with an annual Vatican fundraising jamboree known as “America Week,” a week of lavish Rome parties, that saw €1 billion committed to the Vatican should the “right pope” be elected.  The upshot is — theoretically — more money from across the pond. “American philanthropists want to see that so they will open up their coffers again,” said Yep. Electing Leo “was a very smart choice because they absolutely need the American money. The church is in a terrible position financially,” said the Catholic leader in the U.S. quoted above. “They need the American money. And they were able to pick an American who’s not that American. It was kind of a perfect pick.” LEGACY OF CORRUPTION But restoring confidence will also require a credible overhaul of the Vatican’s financial plumbing and accounting after years of scandal that also tainted the Church’s international image. Insiders often blame the shoddy financial situation on the Vatican Bank’s alleged links to a sprawling money-laundering scandal in the 1970s that reportedly involved Italian freemasonry, the mafia, the CIA, anticommunist militias in Latin America and a Milanese banker who was found hanging dead under London’s Blackfriars Bridge in 1982. Creative accounting persisted over the years, and the shock resignation of Francis’ predecessor, Benedict XVI, was partly driven by a raft of financial scandals leaked to the Italian press. Under a transparency drive, Francis hired former Deloitte accountant Libero Milone to audit the Holy See’s finances. Milone’s first task was to draw up accounting for the various dicasteries that make up the Curia, the Vatican City government. What he found stunned him. “They created a proper framework to bring Vatican financial reporting into the 21st century,” Milone told POLITICO. “But when I was brought in to do the audit work, we were still operating in the previous century.” Newly elected Pope Leo XIV smiles from the central loggia of Saint Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City, 08 May 2025. | Ettore Ferrari/EPA-EFE Financial accounts were written in pencil by nuns on “pieces of paper” and stashed in drawers, Milone said. Theologians with rudimentary financial knowledge massively underestimated the future costs of the microstate’s pension obligations, he said. When Milone began to notice discrepancies in various ministerial budgets, he was accused of being a spy. He was eventually brought in for questioning and compelled to resign — then found that a resignation letter had already been prepared a month prior. Francis didn’t sit on his hands. The Vatican Bank is profitable again, after he ended some of its shadier practices, and he also presided over the conviction of Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu, a powerful secretary involved in a €200 million scandal involving a botched London property investment in 2014. As well as a hiring freeze and salary cuts, Francis set up a new fundraising commission and centralized the Vatican’s budgeting.  But the broader reform effort was seriously derailed by the departure of Milone, as well as Cardinal George Pell, an Australian who had been brought in to head a new Secretariat for the Economy but was called back to Australia to face charges relating to the clerical abuse scandal. Officials describe an enduring lack of transparency as well as internal resistance to the slow-going reform efforts from entrenched interests in the Curia, with staffers complaining about the effort to mediate spending. Representatives for the IOR and the Holy See’s Secretariat for the Economy declined POLITICO’s requests for interviews. So far, Leo has hinted that he will prioritize fundraising over austerity, announcing a €500 bonus to curial staffers. He has also signalled that he wants to distance the Vatican from scandals of the past, sanctioning a new investigation into a key witness against Cardinal Becciu’s conviction which could help overturn his conviction at the appeal this fall. On top of that, he will look into ways to boost profits in the Holy See’s vast real estate portfolio, after prelates complained about underinvestment, said the cardinal quoted above.  How all this pans out will depend on not only American largesse but whether Leo can empower the growing caucus of Church pragmatists who recognize that even the Holy See must occasionally lower itself to earthly responsibilities like basic financial planning. For others, the divine mission still trumps all — whatever the cost. “There will always be a way to get money, just like there will always be the poor,” said one prelate in St. Peter’s Square last month. “Right now, my concern is lunch.”