Good morning from Madrid, 

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni joined forces with her Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orbán and French far-right leader Marine Le Pen to back Spain’s far-right VOX party at a rally in Madrid on Sunday in what they described as a “great common battle” against Brussels.

Branding themselves as “patriots”, they vowed to fight against Brussels’ “poisoning of children” with gender propaganda and lashed out against EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen. 

Read the full story here.

Although they come from different EU political groups—the hard-right European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) and far-right Identity and Democracy (ID)—their common rhetoric raises eyebrows regarding potential collaborations after the EU elections on 9 June. 

Meanwhile, far-right Argentina’s President Javier Milei, who also attended the gathering in Madrid, caused a diplomatic incident after he attacked the socialist Spanish prime minister’s wife and talked about “cancerous socialism”. 

The Spanish government called its ambassador in Buenos Aires for consultations and demanded a “public apology” without ruling out taking further measures.

Fernando Heller in Madrid has the story. 

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi pronounced dead in helicopter crash: Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his foreign minister were killed in a helicopter crash in mountainous terrain and icy weather, an Iranian official said on Monday, after search teams located the wreckage in East Azerbaijan province of Iran.

“President Raisi, the foreign minister and all the passengers in the helicopter were killed in the crash,” the senior Iranian official told Reuters.

Meanwhile, the EU offered its mapping services on Sunday to help find the helicopter. 

With just a few weeks before the EU elections on 9 June, Euractiv is examining the profiles of each respective member state.  

Today, Aneta Zachová focuses on the Czech Republic, where the agenda is dominated by former prime minister Andrej Babiš’s eurosceptic ANO party. 

PARIS

While the violence continues in New Caledonia, the archipelago is in a precarious economic situation, plagued for months by falling nickel prices, of which it holds 20% to 30% of the world’s reserves. Read more.

Poll: Macron’s list hits all-time low ahead of EU elections. The list backed by French President Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance (Renew) gets 15.5% of the vote – its lowest level since the start of the European election campaign – and now ranks behind the socialist party, according to the latest Elabe poll published on Saturday. Read more.

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BERLIN

Political violence in Germany on the rise. Offences against politicians have increased in the last year in Germany, highlighted by recent violent attacks against a couple of leading politicians on their campaign trail. Read more.

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BRUSSELS

Pfizergate: Belgian court postpones case to December taking pressure off von der Leyen. The latest hearing in the Pfizergate scandal has been postponed until 6 December by a Belgian court to give parties additional time to examine certain aspects of the case, a decision likely to be a relief for European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who is currently busy on the campaign trail ahead of the June EU elections. Read more.

HELSINKI

Finland to present plan to push back migrants on Russian border. Finland will propose a law next week allowing border agents to block asylum seekers trying to enter from Russia, the prime minister said on Sunday, a decision that could cause Helsinki to temporarily breach its international commitments. Read more.

ATHENS

A European Commission spokesperson told Euractiv that the 2018 Prespa Agreement between Greece and North Macedonia must be implemented by “all parties” and in “good faith” amid a new spat between Athens and Skopje that threatens to revive a 25-year dispute. Read more.

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ROME

Italy’s family minister explains decision not to sign EU LGBT declaration. Italy was among nine EU countries that did not sign a declaration promoting European policies in favor of LGBT+ communities, sparking widespread protests within the country while the government described it as “unbalanced”. Read more.

BRATISLAVA

The 71-year-old man who attempted to assassinate Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico last week may not have acted as a so-called “lone wolf”, Interior Minister Matúš Šutaj Eštok (Hlas) reported, adding he was not the one who deleted the alleged shooters Facebook history hours after the attack. Read more.

SOFIA

Bulgarian president says Ukraine’s victory over Russia ‘impossible’. Bulgarian President Rumen Radev has described Ukraine’s victory over Russia as “impossible” and linked the two-year war with Russia to the assassination attempt on Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico. Read more.

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TIRANA

Albania sees first same-sex religious marriage as LGBT couple challenge family code. Two Albanian women have become the first couple in the country’s history to challenge the laws on marriage under an article of the constitution while also taking part in a religious marriage ceremony, as the EU Ambassador to Albania, Silvio Gonzato, says Albania needs to consider the equality of citizens before the law. Read more.

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[Edited by Sarantis Michalopoulos, Daniel Eck, Liene Lūsīte, Alice Taylor]