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Hungary election live: Viktor Orbán concedes defeat in Hungarian election after 16 years in power

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy is the latest leader to join in congratulations for Peter Magyar and his Tisza. In a post on X, he says: “Congratulations to @magyarpeterMP and the TISZA party on their resounding victory. It is important when constructive approach prevails. Ukraine has always sought good-neighbourly relations with everyone in Europe and we are ready to advance our cooperation with Hungary. Europe and every European nation must get stronger, and millions of Europeans seek cooperation and stability. We are ready for meetings and joint constructive work for the benefit of both nations, as well as peace, security, and stability in Europe.” After a harshly anti-Ukrainian campaign from Orbán, one can only try to imagine how much this result means for Zelenskyy as it offers a chance for a new opening with Ukraine.

Middle East crisis live: Iranian negotiator says ‘we will not bow to any threats’ as Trump says US navy will blockade strait of Hormuz

UK prime minister Keir Starmer held a call with French president Emmanuel Macron this afternoon to discuss the ongoing regional crisis in the Middle East. The two leaders reportedly focused on the necessity of immediate de-escalation, according to a statement from Downing Street. Starmer emphasized the need for a “lasting ceasefire,” with both heads of state agreeing that such an agreement must encompass Lebanon to ensure genuine regional stability. The leaders also underscored the critical role of the strait of Hormuz in maintaining global trade and energy security. They committed to mobilizing a broad international coalition to safeguard freedom of navigation.

Viktor Orbán concedes defeat as opposition wins Hungarian election

Hungary’s opposition Tisza party, led by Péter Magyar, has won the general election, ending leader Viktor Orbán’s 16-year grip on power, in a result that is likely to rattle the White House and reshape the country’s relationship with the EU. Less than three hours after polls closed on Sunday, Orbán conceded defeat after what he described as a “painful” election result. “I congratulated the victorious party,” Orbán told supporters in Budapest. “We are going to serve the Hungarian nation and our homeland from opposition as well.” Thirty minutes before polls were set to close, a record 77.8% of the country’s voters – some seven percentage points above the previous 2002 record – had turned up at polling stations across the central European country. Throughout the hard-fought campaign Orbán and his rightwing populist government had consistently trailed in the polls, suggesting the election could bring an end to his efforts to transform Hungary into an “illiberal democracy” and reshape the country’s relations with the EU, Moscow and Washington. With 72% of the vote counted, results projected a win of 138 seats in the 199-seat parliament for the main opposition party, Tisza, led by Magyar, , a former member of Orbán’s Fidesz party who broke ranks with it in 2024. The election was being closely watched in countries around the world, with many viewing it as a test of the resilience of the Maga movement and the global far right, many of whom have long cited Orbán as an inspiration and sought to follow his playbook. As Orbán trailed in the polls, rightwing leaders from around the globe scrambled to rally behind him. JD Vance last week turned up in Budapest for a two-day visit, with the US vice-president telling reporters that he had travelled to the capital to “help” Orbán win. Donald Trump had also repeatedly endorsed Orbán, most recently on Friday when he posted: “I AM WITH HIM ALL THE WAY!” In January, leaders including Italy’s Giorgia Meloni and Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu also made it clear they were backing Orbán. Since 2010, Orbán – the EU’s longest-serving leader – had sought to turn Hungary into a vanguard of illiberalism, with the aim, he said, of defending traditional Christian family values against what he saw as an onslaught of western liberalism and multiculturalism. His rightwing populist government used its time in office to steadily whittle away at the checks and balances that constrained its power: rewriting election laws to its own benefit, manoeuvring to put loyalists in control of an estimated 80% of the country’s media, and retooling the country’s judiciary. Hundreds of thousands of people last summer took to the streets of Budapest in defiance of the government’s efforts to ban Pride and other events involving the LGBTQ+ community. The election has played out on both the global and domestic stages, as Orbán sought to convince voters Hungary risked being swept up in war in Ukraine,while Magyar focused on domestic issues with pledges to crack down on corruption, repair Orbán’s antagonistic relationship with the EU and funnel funds into the country’s crumbling public services. Both candidate stayed on message as they cast their ballots on Sunday morning. Magyar called on Hungarians to vote in a “decisive election”, later insisting that “tonight the nightmare we have been living these past years will come to an end”. Orbán reiterated his warnings of a “major crisis” awaiting Europe and suggested his government was the safest pair of hands to handle turbulent times. “Fortunately we have a lot of friends in the world. From America to China to Russia and the Turkish world,” he told reporters after casting his ballot on Sunday. The campaign said his government’s ties to Moscow come under scrutiny after leaked audio and transcripts alleged that Orbán had told Vladimir Putin, “I am at your service”, and that a minister had shared confidential EU information with the Russian government. Orbán’s government cited the leaks as evidence of foreign interference. Among those who had mobilised in large numbers against Orbán and Fidesz were young people – many of whom had come of age as the country plunged in press freedom rankings, was accused of being an “electoral autocracy”, and became the most corrupt country in the EU. One poll suggested that as many as 65% of voters under the age of 30 were planning to cast their vote against Orbán. Speaking to the Guardian, several students said their future hinged on the outcome of the elections. “I’m very afraid that Hungary will leave the European Union,” said Blanka, 21, in Budapest. “If things don’t change, I will probably move out, and I think a lot of my friends think the same.” In the lead-up to Sunday’s vote, analysts pointed to three possible outcomes of the election: a Magyar majority that Orbán accepts, a Magyar majority that Orbán does not accept, or an Orbán majority. Even if Magyar succeeded in taking power, many were expecting change to come slowly. During Fidesz’s 16 years in power, the party stacked the Hungarian state, media and judiciary with loyalists; how they respond to a change in government remains up in the air. There was also the question of whether Magyar could win a simple majority or a super-majority – meaning a win of least two-thirds of the 199 seats in Hungary’s parliament. A super-majority would allow Magyar and his party to amend the constitution and laws, allowing them to reverse some of the changes made by Orbán and Fidesz and potentially unlock EU funds. “We know that, even if we change governments, the next four to eight years are going to be hard because they just absolutely took the country to shit. There’s no other way to say it,” said Betti, 24, in Budapest. “It’s going to be hard, but it’s probably still going to be better.”

Trump says US will blockade strait of Hormuz after Iran peace talks fail

Donald Trump has said the US will begin blockading the strait of Hormuz in an attempt to take control of the strategic waterway from Iran in the aftermath of failed peace negotiations between the countries in Pakistan. The US president also threatened to bomb Iran’s water treatment facilities, power plants and bridges if Tehran did not agree to abandon its nuclear weapons programme, the key sticking point between the two sides. Trump’s surprise announcement of a blockade came after face-to-face peace negotiations between the US and Iran in Islamabad that lasted 21 hours collapsed on Sunday morning. JD Vance, the vice-president and head of the US team, said Iran had refused to give up the possibility of developing nuclear weapons, while the Iranian delegates said Washington needed to do more to win their trust. Risking another increase in oil prices, Trump said he had instructed the US navy to begin “blockading any and all ships trying to enter, or leave, the strait of Hormuz,” and he accused Iran of extortion with its own scheme of charging tolls to tankers. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards responded by declaring that if any warships approached the strait to enforce a blockade – usually considered an act of war – it would be considered a breach of the current ceasefire and would be dealt with strongly. They insisted the strait remained under Iranian control. Two US destroyers crossed and recrossed the strait without incident on Saturday, although Iranian media said they were threatened as they left. The US military said it was the start of a mine-clearance mission. Trump said US warships would “seek and interdict every vessel” that had paid Iran since the start of the conflict and begin de-mining the central section of the strait, previously declared a “hazardous area” by Tehran, although it is unclear how many mines have been laid. About 100 tankers have transited the strait since the US and Israel started bombing Iran, paying up to $2m each time for passage. Many were bound for China and India, carrying Iranian oil products, and chasing them down could complicate relations between the US and the importing nations. The US and Iranian delegations left Pakistan soon after the talks ended. Vance said he spoke with Trump at least half a dozen times during the talks, held during a 14-day ceasefire announced by the US, Israel and Iran overnight on 7 and 8 April. “We need to see an affirmative commitment that [Iran] will not seek a nuclear weapon, and they will not seek the tools that would enable them to quickly achieve a nuclear weapon,” Vance said. “That is the core goal of the president of the United States, and that’s what we’ve tried to achieve through these negotiations.” Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of the Iranian parliament, who led Tehran’s negotiators, said he and his colleagues had offered “constructive initiatives” while the US had been “unable to gain the trust of the Iranian delegation in this round of negotiations”. Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency said “excessive” US demands had hindered reaching an agreement, and the foreign ministry said more time was needed. “Naturally, from the beginning we should not have expected to reach an agreement in a single session,” the ministry’s spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said, according to the state broadcaster IRIB. Pakistani mediators called on the US and Iran to refrain from renewing hostilities and said they would try to arrange a fresh round of talks. “It is imperative that the parties continue to uphold their commitment to the ceasefire,” said Pakistan’s foreign minister, Ishaq Dar. Vance was accompanied by the US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. They met Ghalibaf and the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, for several negotiating sessions at the Serena hotel in Islamabad, with Pakistan’s army chief, Asim Munir, also present. Iran’s delegation arrived on Friday dressed in black in mourning for the late supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and others killed in the war. They carried shoes and bags of children killed during the bombing of a school next to a military compound, the Iranian government said. A Pakistani source said the discussions, the highest-level direct contact between the US and Iran since 1979, were unpredictable in tone. “There were mood swings from the two sides, and the temperature went up and down during the meeting,” a Pakistani source said after the first round. In a Fox News interview on Sunday, Trump threatened to restart the bombing of Iran if a deal could not be agreed, and threatened to target the country’s water supply as well as its bridges and power generation. Trump said: “The only thing left, really, is their water, which would be very devastating to hit. I would hate to do it, but it’s their water, their desalinisation plans, their electric generating plants, which are very easy to hit.” The president was asked if gas and oil prices might be lower by the US midterms in November, an indication that attacking Iran was not an economic mistake. Prices “could be the same or maybe a little bit higher,” a non-committal Trump replied. In southern Lebanon, at least 11 people were killed and there were at least 30 Israeli strikes in the region, the country’s state news service said. At the Vatican, Pope Leo XIV called for a ceasefire after his Sunday prayers and said he felt “closer than ever” to Lebanon’s people. The war, which began with US and Israeli strikes on Iran six weeks ago, has killed at least 3,000 people in Iran, 2,020 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. It has caused lasting damage to infrastructure in half a dozen Middle Eastern countries.

Irish police clear Dublin blockade staged by fuel price protesters

Police have cleared a blockade of central Dublin by farmers and hauliers who were protesting about fuel prices, signalling a possible end to six days of protests that have rocked Ireland. Mounted units and hundreds of officers regained control of O’Connell Street in a peaceful operation that emptied the thoroughfare of trucks and tractors on Sunday morning. Other police units sealed off a section of Galway in an attempt to end a blockade of a fuel depot, the latest in a series of coordinated actions that began on Saturday when gardaí removed protesters from outside the Whitegate oil refinery in County Cork, prompting scuffles and the use of pepper spray. Protesters outside a fuel terminal in Foynes, County Limerick said they would lift the blockade at 1pm on Sunday. In a bid to ease the discontent, the government on Sunday night announced €500m worth of spending increases and tax cuts to soften the impact on consumers and businesses following an emergency cabinet meeting. The measures include a 10 cent reduction a litre on diesel and petrol, postponement of a planned carbon tax increase and a fuel subsidy for farming and fisheries. The package followed €250m worth of measures announced almost three weeks ago, which protesters had deemed insufficient. It was unclear whether the police actions and financial alleviation, a carrot-and-stick strategy, would fully quell protests that have shown effective coordination despite having no central leadership or organisation. The protesting farmers, hauliers and other groups caused traffic chaos and severely disrupted fuel distribution in response to a 20% jump in fuel prices since last month, a knock-on effect from the conflict in the Middle East that has put pressure on governments around the world to cap fuel prices. Despite hundreds of forecourts running dry, 56% of voters supported the protesters, according to a poll in the Sunday Independent, a solidarity that some analysts attributed to the wider cost of living crisis. Roads and motorways that had been blocked flowed freely, and protesters who had spent successive nights sleeping in their vehicles appeared relieved to go home, but others expressed resentment at police actions and said protests would continue until demands were met. “Nobody in the city of Dublin or the country could say our assembly was anything but peaceful,” said Christopher Duffy, a spokesperson. The police threat to tow tractors and trucks compelled their withdrawal because the vehicles would be damaged if dragged without the engine on, he said. “We have no choice. Financially, we have to move the vehicles,” he said, and urged independent and rural lawmakers to withdraw support for the centre-right coalition government of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil. Asked if the overall protests were over, he replied: “I don’t think so.” James Geoghegan, another spokesperson, said protesters would not back down until demands were met. “This protest does not end until the cost of living is dropped to a level that we can stay in business,” he told RTÉ. “Lads can go home and regroup. A lot of lads want to go home and take maybe a day’s rest and come back out because until the issues are solved, the protest doesn’t end.” The cabinet meeting later on Sunday was expected to approve measures to help agriculture, transport, fishing and other sectors most affected by fuel prices. The government said it would publicise the measures, which have been described as targeted and temporary, only after protests ended.

Hope, fear and an ‘unpredictable outcome’ as Hungarians vote after 16 years of Orbán

As Fruzsi, 22, waited to cast her vote at a polling station in central Budapest, a note of optimism laced through her voice. “I think everyone is hopeful,” she said. “It feels like we might be writing history tonight.” It was a hint of the heady mix of hope, anxiety, and fear being felt across the country as a record number of Hungarians turned up on Sunday to cast their ballots in the parliamentary election. For the bulk of Fruzsi’s life, Viktor Orbán had been Hungary’s prime minister, using his past 16 years in power to transform the country into what he described as “a petri dish for illiberalism”. Now, after a hard fought campaign in which his party had consistently trailed in the polls, she was hopeful that Hungarians were ready to turn the page on his government. “There are a lot of angry people,” she said. “The government, they lie, lie and lie – and still people believe them.” The race was transformed in early 2024, after Péter Magyar, a former insider in Orbán’s Fidesz party, began speaking out, alleging that corruption and cronyism were rife within the party. Soon Magyar’s hastily formed centre-right Tisza party had rocketed to the top of the polls with pledges to repair the country’s drift away from the EU, crackdown on corruption, and restore democratic checks and balances, turning the election into a broader plebiscite on Hungary’s future. But on Sunday, many said they were backing Magyar while others said they were content with the status quo. “The outcome is unpredictable, no?” said Mária, 81. “Hopefully Fidesz will win. They help the young and elderly in so many ways, and I trust that they will continue to protect the country.” Her comments were a nod to a campaign that had sought to appeal to very different concerns among voters. Orbán asserted that the war in Ukraine was the country’s top threat and he was the only leader capable of keeping the peace, while Tisza urged voters to focus on tackling economic stagnation, fraying social services and corruption. The discrepancies were reflected in how Hungarians saw Sunday’s vote. “I can’t think of any negative things to say about Fidesz,” said Mária, 58. “I’m hopeful they will have a super majority” The campaign, she said, had made her fearful of the alternative. “I think Magyar is a disaster and Tisza is unpredictable.” A few blocks away, Gergő, 36, said the time had come for change. For 16 years he had watched as Orbán’s government took aim at George Soros, the EU, migrants and, this time around, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “The government attacks everyone, from teachers to judges, all kinds of minority groups. It’s terrible,” he said. “There’s always another enemy – it’s endless.” He was steeling himself for the results with an “anything is possible” attitude, he said, as he had hoped for change in previous elections, only to see Fidesz win time and again. “But I’m hoping for change.” The election is being closely watched around the world, as a loss for Orbán could rattle far-right movements across the globe and reshape the country’s relationship with Russia and the EU. Despite Tisza’s poll lead, analysts said before the vote that the outcome was far from certain, as undecided voters, a redrawing of the electoral map in favour of Fidesz, allegations of vote-buying and the votes cast by Hungarians abroad could all sway the results. Orbán’s most fervent supporters include many in the White House, where backers of the Hungarian strongman have long cited him as an inspiration. The final days of the campaign saw JD Vance travel to Budapest to rally behind Orbán, while Donald Trump repeatedly endorsed the right-wing populist on social media. But for voters such as Mira, 26, the election was fundamentally about issues closer to home, namely whether she would have a future in Hungary. “I want to stay here, but obviously corruption has reached such proportions that healthcare and education are practically unacceptable,” she said. If change didn’t come tonight, she wasn’t sure what she would be able to do abroad as a lawyer trained in Hungary. “I don’t know where I would go, or what I would do.” While the desire for change threaded through many of the conversations with Tisza voters, many were swift to note that they were not expecting it to come quickly. During Fidesz’s 16 years in power, the party stacked the Hungarian state, media and judiciary with loyalists; how they would respond to a potential change in government remain up in the air. And then there is the two-thirds majority needed to amend the constitution and key laws, meaning Tisza’s ability to change Hungary could be limited if the party wins the election but falls short of a supermajority. “They’re leaving so much behind – from the budget deficit to all their loyalists – as long as those things remain, nothing will change,” said Zoltán, 29. “But there will be a vision for the future. And that means that in the long run we can start to build something.”

US lawmakers split on party lines over negotiations’ failure to end Iran war

The failure of negotiations to end the US war with Iran has unleashed a barrage of starkly partisan political responses, with leading Republicans making hawkish calls for Donald Trump to “finish the job” while top Democrats warned that it would be disastrous for the president to resume hostilities. The former UN ambassador during Trump’s first presidency, Nikki Haley, led the Republican charge. She told CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday that the current two-week ceasefire was a test of nerves. “This is like a game of chicken,” she said. “It’s who caves first. The Iranian regime is hoping that Trump will cave. Today, he showed he’s not.” Haley was alluding to Trump’s threat, made hours after marathon peace talks in Pakistan ended without result, that the US military would blockade the strait of Hormuz to prevent Iran profiting from its control of the narrow shipping passage. She encouraged Trump to “go after Iran where it hurts”, adding that what would “really bring Iran to its knees is to go after it economically”. Speaking on ABC’s This Week, US senator Ron Johnson – a Wisconsin Republican – also urged Trump to take a hard line. He advocated the total removal of the Iranian regime, admitting that the task “could be longer term”. “We have to finish the job,” he said. “We will not have won until we have completely defanged the Iranian regime.” A top priority for Republican war hawks is to prevent Iran ever acquiring nuclear weapons by seizing its supplies of enriched uranium. Haley gave a rosy appraisal of how that could be accomplished. The US could launch a relatively small and quick special forces operation to grab the country’s stash of enriched uranium, she told CNN. “This is a special forces mission,” she said. “It would take about a week to 10 days to get done. They know how to do it.” US senator Mark Warner of Virginia, who is the top Democrat on the Senate’s intelligence committee, fiercely rebutted Haley’s bellicose remarks. He told State of the Union that attempting to seize Iran’s 1,000lb canisters of highly volatile enriched uranium would be “very, very dangerous”. “It would take 10,000 troops on the ground guarding a perimeter,” Warner said. “We’d have to send special operators in, and the Iranians could then bomb their own facility, potentially trapping our troops.” Warner’s fellow Democratic senator from Virginia, Tim Kaine, told This Week that he would be pressing again for a war motion in the Senate in the coming days to try to stop Trump returning to full-scale hostilities. He argued that even an imperfect ceasefire would be preferable to resuming war. “Returning to full war will just compound the suffering of American troops and the American citizenry who are suffering under a devastated economy because of what Donald Trump has done,” Kaine said. Kaine, who sits on both the Senate armed services and foreign relations committees, added: “We shouldn’t be in this war to begin with. Donald Trump launched this war without the support of allies, the American public, or Congress.” Beyond Capitol Hill, Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic mayor of New York City, reiterated his passionate opposition to the US-Israel war with Iran. Interviewed by Al Jazeera, he laid out what he called the moral case against the conflict. He said the fighting was deeply unpopular among Americans and was utilizing “tens of billions of dollars to kill people, money that could otherwise be used to make life easier for people”. Mamdani quoted the line by the late rapper Tupac Shakur from his 1993 song, Keep Ya Head Up: “They got money for wars, but can’t feed the poor.”

Mauritius vows to ‘decolonise’ Chagos Islands after Starmer shelves handover

A senior official in Mauritius’ government has vowed that the Chagos Islands will be “decolonised” after Keir Starmer was forced to shelve legislation to hand the islands back to Mauritius. On Friday, UK government officials acknowledged that they had run out of time to pass legislation within the current parliamentary session, which ends in the coming weeks, after a lack of support from Donald Trump. After the collapse of the plan to hand the islands over voluntarily, Dhananjay Ramful, the Mauritian foreign minister, told an Indian Ocean conference in Mauritius that his government would regain control over the territory. “We will spare no effort to seize any diplomatic or legal avenue to complete the decolonisation process,” he said, in comments that were first reported in the Sunday Telegraph. “This is a matter of justice.” The latest setback in the UK’s bid to hand the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, which hosts the joint US-UK Diego Garcia military base, is a sign of faltering US-UK relations after Trump’s criticism of Starmer over the war in Iran. The US president had criticised the Chagos plan, which is backed by the US state department, telling Starmer he was “making a big mistake” by handing sovereignty of the islands to Mauritius in exchange for the UK and US being allowed to continue using their airbase. Trump later gave qualified support, but the UK was forced to drop the bill after the US failed to give its approval by formally exchanging letters to amend a 1966 British-American treaty on the islands. A new Chagos bill is not now expected to feature in the king’s speech in May, where the government’s agenda for the coming parliament is revealed. The Chagos Islands are officially known as British Indian Ocean Territory and have been controlled by the UK since the 19th century. In 2019, the international court of justice found that the UK unlawfully separated the islands from Mauritius before it granted independence to the country in 1968. Thousands of islanders were then forcibly deported to make way for the US-UK military base. A government spokesperson said: “Diego Garcia is a key strategic military asset for both the UK and the US. Ensuring its long-term operational security is, and will continue to be, our priority – it is the entire reason for the deal. “We continue to believe the agreement is the best way to protect the long-term future of the base, but we have always said we would only proceed with the deal if it has US support.” The shelved plan, which was agreed with the previous US president Joe Biden, would have seen Britain cede sovereignty of the Chagos to Mauritius and pay about £35bn to lease the airbase back for 99 years. Simon McDonald, a former permanent under-secretary at the Foreign Office, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the government had “no other choice” than to halt the deal. “When the president of the United States is openly hostile, the government has to rethink, so this agreement, this treaty will go into the deep freeze for the time being,” he said. The Mauritius attorney general, Gavin Glover, said the outcome “does not come as a surprise”, blaming it on strained relations between Trump and Starmer, reported Arab News. “We are dependent on Anglo-American relations … the US and Britain will have to reach an agreement,” Glover told a local newspaper. Mauritius is planning to meet the British government on 22 April over the Chagos deal, he said. On Sunday, the health secretary, Wes Streeting, denied that the UK’s deal to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius was moribund. “It is fair to say there has been a shift in position in Washington,” he said. “We’ve been clear throughout that the objective is to make sure we secure the Chagos Islands for the long term in British and American interests. I think there are lots of people in the US administration who understand what we’re trying to achieve, who support that objective.”