Can JD Vance save Orbán?
US President Donald Trump’s allies have taken a major interest in European politics over the last 18 months, attempting to boost far-right leaders in Albania, Germany, and Poland. Now, Vice President JD Vance is aiming to boost MAGA’s closest ally on the continent: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Vance reportedly plans to visit Hungary in the coming days. However, with the election barely three weeks away, Orbán’s reelection campaign seems to have stalled: he continues to trail the pro-EU, center-right opposition leader Péter Magyar in polls. With European gas prices surging, and 2024 elections showing how inflation is kryptonite for incumbents worldwide, Vance has his work cut out if he wants to rescue Hungary’s far-right leader.
Thailand’s Charnvirakul wins big, now comes the hard part
On Thursday, Thailand’s parliament re-elected Anutin Charnvirakul as prime minister. Anutin was first elected in September, but only on the promise to dissolve parliament and hold elections within 45 to 60 days. Since then, Charnvirakul formed an unlikely coalition of more than a dozen parties, joining the populist Pheu Thai with his conservative Bhumjaithai party. Charnvirakul rode a wave of nationalist sentiment amid deadly border clashes with Cambodia, which in February elections, contributed to conservatives’ first win this century. His campaign has been a bid for stability after years of political turmoil, which will be no easy feat in Thailand. The country has experienced more than a dozen coups since absolute monarchy ended in 1932, and its economy has stagnated in the last decade.
Venezuela’s long-serving defense minister sacked
Acting president Delcy Rodríguez on Wednesday fired Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino and replaced him with former interior minister and intel chief, Gustavo Gonzalez López, a devoted Chavista hardliner who remains under US sanctions. This is her biggest cabinet shakeup since taking over in January after the Trump administration abducted her former boss, ousted President Nicolás Maduro. It signals that Rodríguez, who in practice rules at US gunpoint, has room to consolidate her own power while meeting Washington’s demands on economic issues – the US this week loosened sanctions on the Venezuelan national oil company. Any significant political liberalization of the regime appears to be far off.
