Brussels, My Love?

After 16 years of Viktor Orbán’s rule, Hungary suddenly feels like a different country. The billboards are gone, the propaganda machine has fallen silent, and new Prime Minister Péter Magyar is promising sweeping change. This week on Euronews’ weekly podcast Brussels, My Love?, we explore Hungary’s political reset — and what it means for the EU. Host Méabh Mc Mahon is joined by Sándor Zsiros, Euronews’ Hungarian correspondent, Teresa Küchler, Swedish EU affairs expert and correspondent for Svenska Dagbladet, with a bonus appearance from Euronews' political correspondent Luca Bertuzzi for updates on the latest tweaks to the EU AI Act.

On the eve of Europe Day, Brussels, My Love? explores Europe’s place in the international stage with Tomi Huhtanen, executive director of the Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies, and Shona Murray, Euronews’ senior correspondent. What is the state of the transatlantic alliance? And, are these geopolitical issues dividing or uniting the bloc? And, we look at the 70th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, taking place next week in Vienna, with Dean Vuletic, historian and author of the book Postwar Europe and the Eurovision Song Contest.

On International Labour Day, Brussels, My Love? sits down with Esther Lynch, general secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), Mikkel Barslund, researcher at KU Leuven, and Clark Parsons, CEO of the European Startup Network, to explore the challenges and opportunities shaping the European job market and how these impact its workers.

On Tuesday, Germany and Italy blocked a bid to end the highly debated EU association agreement with Israel.  To comprehend the vote and its implications, Brussels, My Love? sits down with Martin Konečný, European Middle East Project director and Vincenzo Genovese, Euronews’ EU reporter.

On Sunday, 12 April, Hungarian voters cast their ballots in the country’s parliamentary election, ending Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's 16-year rule. Will Prime Minister-designate Péter Magyar be able to break with Orbán’s legacy? What does his party’s victory mean for Hungarians and the EU? To answer these and more questions, we talk to former Belgian PM and former European Council President Charles Michel, and to Euronews’ EU correspondent Sandor Zsiros. 

The United States and Iran reached a fragile truce on Tuesday, after a month and a half of conflict in the Middle East. A serious peace deal is yet to made though. In this fast-changing context, Brussels, My Love? looked into the energy crisis arising from instability in the region with Frederico Oliveira da Silva, head of energy at BEUC, the European Consumer Organisation, Dimitar Lilkov, senior research officer at the Wilfried Martens Centre, and Marta Pacheco, EU energy and environmental reporter at Euronews.