Populist Hungary takes over the EU presidency on Monday, as the European Parliament divides power after June's elections.

The European Parliament is dividing up its internal top jobs, against a short deadline for new groups to jostle for position.

Viktor Orban's newly-announced central European "Patriots for Europe" group, with Austria's FPÖ and the Czech Republic's ANO, may further fragment the radical right in the European Parliament. However, with an eye on expected national election results and likely prospective members, in the future this group – rather than the ECR or ID – could be the real pool of nationalist, sovereignt-ist parties in government.

As the largest member state in the 27-nation bloc, the distribution of its 96 seats is important in shaping the future of EU decision-making. Here's what to expect from the European elections in Germany.

EU officials are raising the alarm at the increasing sophistication of disinformation campaigns — as tens of millions of European citizens head to the voting booths over the next few days.

'Today it's less risky to criticise the Pope, even very harshly, than the CEO of a company,' one Italian journalist told EUobserver. Italy's freedom of the press — never recovered from the era of Silvio Berlusconi, has got worse under Georgia Meloni, with a harsh new defamation law and corporate buyouts of independent news agencies.