Summary of the day
Belgium’s prime minister, Alexander De Croo, said liberties would be tested this year and Europe should not fear a scenario where the US leaves it on its own.
De Croo, whose country has taken over the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU, also said that “for us Europeans, the support to Ukraine is existential”.
Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, said in Davos that Europe needs to continue backing Kyiv, citing the need for “predictable” funding.
Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that his conversation with von der Leyen today “focused on the need to unblock the decision to provide Ukraine with €50bn in long-term EU assistance”.
Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, meanwhile, reiterated his opposition to a proposed four-year financial package of Ukraine. “If we want to help Ukraine, which I think we need to do, we have to do it in a way that doesn’t harm the EU’s budget,” he said.
The issue will be discussed among EU leaders during a summit on 1 February.
The European parliament’s leading political groups agreed on a draft compromise resolution that opens the way to a possible legal challenge targeting the European Commission’s decision to unfreeze about €10bn earmarked for Hungary.
German MEP Moritz Körner, a member of the Renew Europe group, said that von der Leyen has “allowed herself to be blackmailed by Viktor Orbán”.
Orbán and Italy’s Matteo Salvini welcomed Donald Trump’s win in the Iowa caucuses.
Thousands of people across Germany have taken to the streets for a fourth consecutive day to voice their opposition to the far-right populist AfD party after politicians from the party met neo-Nazis to discuss a “master plan” for the mass deportation of asylum seekers and German citizens of foreign origin.
The European parliament will tonight debate the resurgence of neo-fascism across the continent, after a last-minute agenda item was added to address a chilling video from Italy that appeared to show hundreds of men making fascist salutes earlier this month.
Updated
Germans take to streets to oppose far-right AfD’s mass deportation plan
Thousands of people across Germany have taken to the streets for a fourth consecutive day to voice their opposition to the far-right populist AfD party after politicians from the party met neo-Nazis to discuss a “master plan” for the mass deportation of asylum seekers and German citizens of foreign origin.
Protests have taken place in Leipzig, Rostock, Essen and Berlin in recent days.
The AfD’s leadership has sought to distant itself from the gathering in November on the outskirts of Potsdam, west of Berlin, which was revealed by the investigative journalism network Correctiv on Wednesday. However, several party members were involved and have since voiced their support for the ideas discussed.
Kate Connolly in Berlin and Ashifa Kassam in Madrid
