… and on that note, it’s a wrap for today!

• US secretary of state Marco Rubio said that the refusal of some Nato allies to let the US use its military bases in Europe as part of its Iran operation was “a problem” that “has to be examined,” as he ended his two-day trip to Italy and the Vatican (14:08).

• But Rubio insisted that he remained a strong supporter of Nato, and insisted no final decisions were made on US military presence in Europe, amid Donald Trump’s frustration with the alliance and his call to remove 5,000 troops from Germany.

• Speaking after “very positive” meetings with Pope Leo and Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, Rubio warned about Iran setting a precedent on controlling international waters (14:18), and conceded that US-led peace talks with Russia and Ukraine “stagnated” in recent weeks (14:22), even as US negotiators are expected in Kyiv soon (12:26).

In other news,

• Denmark’s acting prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, is set to visit the King today after a record 45 days of government-forming talks amid calls to explore alternative coalitions (17:09).

• Slovak prime minister Robert Fico’s plane has landed in Moscow this afternoon, ahead of his planned meeting with Russia’s Vladimir Putin tomorrow (17:44), as the EU – though critical of his participation – starts mulling more direct engagement with the Kremlin (12:04, 12:35)

• Hungary’s incoming prime minister Péter Magyar is about to be inaugurated tomorrow during a formal ceremony inside the country’s stunning parliament, and with a street party to follow afterwards (16:44).

• Finally, the Spanish authorities are finalising preparations for the arrival of the MV Hondius this weekend, saying an “unprecedented operation” is under way to receive, assess and repatriate the 149 passengers and crew members onboard the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship (16:24).

If you have any tips, comments or suggestions, email me at jakub.krupa@theguardian.com.

I am also on Bluesky at @jakubkrupa.bsky.social and on X at @jakubkrupa.

Have a great weekend!

Slovak prime minister Robert Fico’s plane has landed in Moscow this afternoon, Sme reported, ahead of his planned meeting with Russia’s Vladimir Putin tomorrow.

Fico originally had intended to take part in tomorrow’s Russian Victory Parade, but eventually dropped out under pressure from allies to not legitimise the event. But he is still expected lay flowers privately and meet with Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

The Slovak media reported that Fico’s flight had to take the longer route through the Czech Republic, Germany and Sweden, after the Baltic countries reportedly declined to allow the plane to fly over their territory en route to Russia.

Fico will be, once again, the only EU leaders present in Moscow at the same time as it holds the symbolic, but unusually pared-down, event.

Nordic correspondent

Denmark’s acting prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, is to visit the King today after a record 45 days of coalition talks.

The palace said that the Social Democrat, who until now has been leading coalition negotiations, would meet the King at 5.30pm local time. She is expected to hold a short press conference afterwards.

It comes after the Moderates leader, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, said earlier today that he instead wants the Danish Liberal party leader, Troels Lund Poulsen, to try to form a coalition as “royal investigator”.

On 25 March, Frederiksen was granted the first attempt at forming another coalition government after an election which saw both her left wing bloc and the opposing rightwing parties fail to win a parliamentary majority.

Although her party had their worst general election since 1903, they remain the biggest force in parliament.

At the time, Frederiksen said that voters had handed leaders a “troublesome” result but that a “government must be formed”.

in Brussels

The co-leader of Hungary’s green party has offered his support to incoming prime minister Péter Magyar in dismantling the authoritarian system created by Viktor Orbán, while indicating policy differences would remain.

The Hungarian Green party, like other left-leaning groups, chose not to run candidates in last month’s elections to maximise support for Magyar’s centre-right Tisza party with the aim of defeating Orbán.

The strategy helped Magyar to a historic landslide victory, although analysis from the European Council on Foreign Relations indicates that more voters were motivated by an abstract wish for change, rather than enthusiasm for Magyar’s vision.

Richárd Barabás, co-leader of Dialogue-the Green party, said there was great unity among Hungarians to say “no to this kind of authoritarianism, no to this kind of Russian alliance, no to this infringement of human rights” that Orbán’s 16-year rule embodied.

But when it comes to a positive agenda, he said his party would continue to take different positions:

“It is time to start the discussions about the future we want to have and it’s quite natural that we do not agree in every aspect of that.”

Specifically, he said there was a need to debate issues such as European federalism, the integration of Ukraine into the EU and the phase out of Russian oil and gas from Hungary’s energy mix.

Barabás, a Budapest councillor, wants to phase out Russian fossil fuels as soon as possible, favouring the EU’s end of 2027 target, while Magyar has proposed a 2035 deadline.

The politician, who is gay, also said he would continue to advocate for total emancipation for the LGBTQ community, including marital status, access to healthcare and informing people about sexual orientation.

Speaking to the Guardian the day before Magyar is sworn in as prime minister, the Green politician wanted to strike a positive note, congratulating Magyar for his “really great job” in winning the elections.

“The attacks that Fidesz tried to hurl on him is so severe and so disgusting, that just surviving it mentally is a great, great performance. So I’m grateful for that.

We hope for the best and we really wish him luck as prime minister to be able to fulfil all the expectations and requirements proposed by the [European] Commission for him, because Hungary really needs the EU funds to come back to help revitalise the economy.”

Meanwhile, Hungary’s incoming prime minister Péter Magyar, fresh back from meeting Giorgia Meloni in Rome, is about to be inaugurated tomorrow.

Ashifa Kassam and Flora Garamvolgyi are in Budapest to cover the big moment, marking an end to the 16 years of Viktor Orbán’s rule.

According to the schedule posted by Magyar online, the inaugural session of the parliament is set to begin 10am tomorrow, and the new PM is then expected to make an appearance outside the palriament 4pm, before unofficial party begins 5pm.

As Ashifa and Flora note:

“[The inauguration] comes weeks after Magyar and his opposition Tisza party won a landslide victory in a result that rattled the global far right, reset Hungary’s long-strained relationship with the EU and set off all-night celebrations along the banks of the Danube River.

Magyar this week called on Hungarians to join him in turning the page on Orbán’s rule and his efforts to turn Hungary into a “petri dish for illiberalism” during his time in power. “We will step through the gateway of regime change with a huge party. Come along, and invite your family and friends!” Magyar wrote on social media.”

Expectations for Magyar are high across Hungary, as their conversations with voters reveal in the full piece:

New polling shows that more than three-quarters of Hungarians who voted for Péter Magyar in last month’s election want his government to do more to address the climate crisis, and more than 70% want him to protect LGBTQ+ rights, a poll has found.

The poll also offered a glimpse of other ways the government is likely to be pulled in several directions: although voters overwhelmingly said they were looking for change, they remained split on issues that are critical to the EU, such as support for Ukraine and the need for Hungary to curb its dependence on Russian energy.

in Madrid

Meanwhile, the Spanish authorities are finalising preparations for the arrival of the MV Hondius this weekend, saying an “unprecedented operation” is under way to receive, assess and repatriate the 149 passengers and crew members onboard the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship.

The Dutch-flagged vessel, which was sailing from Argentina to Cape Verde, is due to arrive off Tenerife in the Canary Islands at around midday on Sunday.

After negotiations between the Spanish government and the archipelago’s regional authorities, the MV Hondius will remain at anchor in the port of Granadilla and will not dock in Tenerife.

Passengers will be evaluated onboard and will not have any contact with the local population when they are taken from the ship to be repatriated or, in the case of the 14 Spanish nationals onboard, transported to a military hospital in Madrid for quarantine.

“This is an unprecedented operation in response to an international health alert involving 23 countries,” Spain’s health minister, Mónica García, told Spain’s state radio broadcaster, RNE, on Friday morning.

“We’re coordinating this from Spain and the World Health Organization has entrusted Spain with this operation – which, as I’ve said, is unprecedented. We’re going to do what we have to do, which is work and deliver the necessary health and logistical management.”

García confirmed that non-Spanish citizens who did not need urgent medical attention would be evacuated to their home countries even if they showed symptoms of hantavirus, which has killed three people on the ship.

In other news, Russia said that it was carrying out enhanced radiation monitoring after fires in the exclusion zone around the Chornobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine but that there was no excess radiation.

“The radiation situation in the Russian Federation remains stable,” Russia’s national public health agency said.

Rubio also gets asked about the current status of talks with Russia and Ukraine.

He says:

“We’ve played … tried to play a mediator role in that so far, it has not led to a fruitful outcome for a variety of reasons. We remain prepared to play that role if it can be productive. We don’t want to waste our time and invest time and energy on an effort that’s not moving forward. But if we see an opportunity to act as a mediator that brings both sides closer to a peace deal, we’d like to see it.”

He says the US sees the continuing war as “a tragedy” with “both sides paying avery heavy prices for it, both economic and obviously at a human level.”

“We’re prepared to play whatever role we can to bring it to a peaceful diplomatic resolution; unfortunately … those efforts have stagnated, but we always stand ready if those circumstances change.”

Rubio also gets asked about the recent escalation with Iran.

He says the US “shot back” at Iran to respond to its attacks.

“What if you fire a drone or a missile at our destroyer, what are we supposed to do? Let it hit it? We have to respond to it. We have to knock down the missile. We have to knock out whatever it is that launched that missile. The alternative is to let it sink one of our ships. That’s crazy.”

He continues, annoyed:

“We’re not going to shoot down your drone? … That’s a stupid position to take. Of course, we fired back at them. They were shooting at us. That’s what I would expect to do. Only stupid countries don’t shoot back when you’re shot at, and we’re not a stupid country. …

If you fire on, if you are a missile launching guy, whatever they call that job, and you’re sitting there, and you fire a missile at the United States, and we saw you fire it, we’re going to hit you.”

Going back to European reactions to Iran and its apparent attempt to control the strait of Hormuz, he says the question is whether the world is planning to accept that claim.

“If the answer is no, we don’t think Iran should be able to control the Straits of Hormuz, then the next question is going to be for everyone. Well, what are you going to do about it? …

The fundamental question every country, not Italy, every country, needs to ask themselves is, are you going to normalise a country claiming to control an international waterway?

Because if you normalise that, you set a precedent that’s going to get repeated in a dozen other places and if the answer is no, we don’t want to normalise it then you better have something more than just strongly worded statements to back it up.”

Rubio also gets asked about his meeting with Italy’s Meloni amid US president Trump’s threats to pull US troops from Europe.

He says it is a decision to be made by the president.

But he continues:

“I said publicly, and I’ve said repeatedly, I’ve been a strong supporter of Nato throughout my career in the Senate and even now, and one of the advantages of being in Nato is that it allows us to have forces deployed in Europe and bases that allow us a logistical ability to project power in case of contingencies.

We had a contingency and some countries in Europe, some countries in Europe like Spain as an example, denied us the use of those bases for a very important contingency that in some ways, the denial of those bases actually impeded the mission, not severely but had a cost and in fact, even created some unnecessary dangers.”

In a particularly strong line, he says:

“If one of the main reasons why the US is in Nato is the ability to have forces deployed in Europe that we could project to other contingencies, and now that’s no longer the case, at least when it comes to some Nato members, that’s a problem and has to be examined.”

He repeats that ultimately it’s the president’s decision to make, and there is no news so far.

He stresses that the partial withdrawal of US troops from Germany only accounts for “less than 14% of our total troop presence there” and it is part of a “pre-programmed” plan to “shift” some burden within Nato.

Meanwhile, US secretary of state Marco Rubio is speaking to reporters after his meeting with Pope Leo and Italy’s Giorgia Meloni over the last two days.

Asked about his discussions with the Pope, he says:

“There’s a lot that we work together with the church, and we talked about those areas, that ultimately it’s important. … There’s a lot that we work together with the church, and we talked about those areas that we’re working together on different parts of the world.

I know everyone’s interested in the other aspects of it, but I … updated them on the situation with Iran, expressed our point of view about why this was an important and the danger that Iran poses to the world, which is largely recognised.”

He says that Leo is “a spiritual leader, first and foremost,” and understandably argued the case for peace, but he said the meeting overall was “very cordial” and “very positive,” recognising the church’s role as “an important global institution.”

The European Commission also insisted that airlines must not charge customers extra fuel fees after they have already bought tickets, as the aviation sector feels the pain from high energy prices because of the Middle East war, AFP reported.

“Airlines may adapt their published fares to the situation, but adding a fuel surcharge to a ticket after it has been bought cannot be justified,” EU spokeswoman Anna-Kaisa Itkonen told reporters in Brussels.

The commission stressed that all passenger protection rules are maintained as the impact of the Iran war on the jet fuel market is not severe enough, Reuters added.

It also added that there is no “concrete evidence” of jet fuel shortages at this point.

The European Commission has just been asked about Costa’s comments.

In response, EU’s deputy chief spokesperson Arianna Podestà recalled the commission president’s social media post from last night instead, saying that “airstrikes on Ukraine once again show Russia is not serious when it talks of ceasefire or peace.”

“The only way to stop human suffering and allow space for meaningful peace talks is to stop the killing immediately and agree a long-term ceasefire.”

She added that all sorts of talks on Ukraine and Russia “are taking place in different formats.”

The commission “can see the merit of having one single figure speaking on behalf of the 27, of course, [but] we need to see Russia’s willingness to engage in serious peace talks.”

Foreign affairs spokesperson Anouar El Anouni added that first “we need to get Russia from a position where Russia pretends to negotiate to where they actually negotiate.”

“We have seen that Moscow has not changed its goal nor its actions,” he added.

in Brussels

And how is European Council President António Costa’s proposal to “organise ourselves” for talks with Russia (12:04) going down in Brussels?

At an event in Florence, Costa, who chairs EU summits, said EU leaders were preparing for potential talks for Russia.

In an on-stage interview with the Financial Times, Costa said the EU needed – one day – to talk with Russia about the future security architecture of Europe.

“We cannot change the geography… and of course we need to talk with them about the future of the security architecture of Europe.

I am talking with the [EU’s 27 national] leaders to see the best way to organise ourselves and to identify what we need effectively to discuss with Russia when it comes the right moment to do this.”

Costa also said he did not see any sign that Russia wanted serious negotiations.

One senior diplomat urged caution. The person stressed the EU needed to ensure its security interests were taken care of in any peace negotiations, while arguing that there was no serious interlocutor in the Kremlin.

“Before we will all get into this question of ‘is this is a good idea?’ ‘is this is a bad idea?’ let’s first wait and see whether we have actually Russia and a Russian president that’s willing to seriously engage. And so far we have seen zero indication of that.

By the time we get to a situation where we have a serious Russian president then we will have to revisit that topic…[It is] perhaps better not to look too far ahead on this, because I think we are nowhere near a situation where this could materialise.”

Meanwhile, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted an update after yesterday’s talks between Ukraine’s chief negotiator Rustem Umerov’s meetings in the US.

Zelenskyy said the talks were “substantive,” with Ukraine and the US looking at welcoming US envoys to Kyiv “at the turn of spring and summer.”

“We hope this time we will be able to realise what has been planned and reinvigorate diplomacy,” he said.

He added the discussions also involved “humanitarian issues, including the continuation of POW exchanges,” and “refining” of security guarantees.

We will also be looking at Italy today, where US secretary of state Marco Rubio is set to meet with the country’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni.

Earlier today, he met with Italy’s foreign minister Antonio Tajani, as he continues his two-day trip to Italy and the Vatican, after meeting with Pope Leo yesterday.

There is no shortage of topics to discuss given growing tensions between Italy and the US in recent months, over Rome’s refusal to join in or support the US war in Iran.

Italy’s Meloni and US Trump had been close allies – with the prime minister even attending his inauguration last year – but as our correspondent Angela Giuffrida noted, that relationship, rooted in shared nationalistic rhetoric, is now unravelling as quickly as it formed.

Trump turned on her telling the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera recently that she “lacked courage” for failing to join the US-Israeli war on Iran.

The rebuke came after Meloni described Trump’s attack on Pope Leo – who has emerged as a vocal critic of the Iran war – as “unacceptable”.

“She is the one who is unacceptable,” Trump snapped, “because she doesn’t care if Iran has a nuclear weapon and would blow up Italy in two minutes if it had the chance.”

Meanwhile, former president Rumen Radev has just been confirmed as Bulgaria’s new prime minister.

During today’s vote in the Bulgarian parliament, all 124 MPs from his party voted in favour, while 70 MPs were against, and 36 abstained.

In last month’s elections – Bulgaria’s eighth since 2021 – Radev’s Progressive Bulgaria won a majority of seats in the parliament, the first such case from 1997.

The former president rode a wave of voter anger at entrenched corruption and the veteran parties that have allowed it.

But there are some questions ofer the new prime minister’s stance on Russia. Radev, 62, who stepped down from the largely ceremonial role of president in January to campaign on an anti-graft ticket, has criticised a recent defence agreement signed between Bulgaria and Ukraine and opposed Sofia sending arms to Kyiv.

Russia and Ukraine are trading accusations of breaking their two very different versions of proposed ceasefire this morning as we get closer to the Victory Day parade in Moscow, with the Kremlin reportedly worrying about a potential Ukrainian strike.

Ukraine suggested an indefinite ceasefire earlier this week, which was repeatedly violated by Russia. After another round of attacks over night, president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said:

“All of this clearly shows that, on the Russian side, there was not even a token attempt to cease fire on the front. As we did over the past 24 hours, Ukraine will respond in kind today as well. We will defend our positions and people’s lives.”

Russia, which wanted a shorter artificial ceasefire to protect the parade to which Kyiv never agreed, said it would be responding to any Ukrainian attacks “symmetrically.”

As my colleague Pjotr Sauer noted earlier this week, Victory Day has been central to Vladimir Putin’s vision of Russian identity throughout his more than 25 years in power. Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin has intensified its use of the annual celebration, with Putin deploying the occasion to frame and justify the current war.

Let’s see how the next few hours shape up as we get closer to the celebration. I will also bring you more on the (very short) guest list for the event.

Elsewhere, we will follow US secretary of state Marco Rubio’s meeting with Italy’s prime minister Giorgia Meloni, track the preparations for Péter Magyar’s inauguration in Hungary tomorrow, and see how are things on board of the hantavirus-hit cruise.

It’s Friday, 8 May 2026, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.

Good morning.