Eurotopics.net

In the Romanian presidential run-off election on Sunday, the non-affiliated mayor of Bucharest, Nicușor Dan, is running as an independent candidate against George Simion from the ultra-right AUR party. Simion scored a clear victory in the first round of the election, securing 40 percent of the vote. Tensions are running high in the commentary sections.

Russia's President Putin has ignored calls for an immediate 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine from France, Germany, the UK, Poland and the US and instead proposed direct negotiations between Ukraine and Russia. President Zelensky promptly replied from Kyiv that he was expecting to meet Putin in person in Turkey on Thursday. Europe's press takes stock.

The leaders of Britain, Germany, Poland and France visited Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Saturday, where they made a joint phone call to Donald Trump and also reiterated the demand for a 30-day ceasefire as a starting point for negotiations - threatening that otherwise new sanctions against Russia would follow. European media outlets assess the impact of the EU leaders' visit.

Bulgaria is on track to join the Eurozone on 1 January 2026. On 4 June the EU Commission is expected to publish a positive convergence report confirming that Bulgaria has met all the accession criteria and giving it the green light. Now, however, President Rumen Radev has applied the brakes and called for a referendum that could stop the introduction of the single currency. The national press objects.

After the most intense fighting in decades in the conflict over the divided Kashmir region, India and Pakistan have agreed to a ceasefire brokered by the Trump administration. European commentators fear that the truce between the two nuclear powers is fragile.