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German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrives in Budapest shortly — and further visits by foreign dignitaries will give Hungary unusual prominence this month.

Russian President Vladimir Putin follows on 17 February, the Turkish, Georgian and Nato leaders soon after.

«That’s just the way life here is,» Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban told the BBC. Hungary has long had to balance East with West.

Critics hope Ms Merkel will chide Mr Orban for his authoritarian policies.

But he will be hoping for praise from a fellow conservative leader.

The cover of the HVG weekly shows Hungary as a seesaw with Mrs Merkel on one end and Mr Putin on the other. «Playground» reads the headline.

It’s not a new story. Endre Ady, one of Hungary’s best modern poets, depicted his motherland in 1905 as a «ferry-country», constantly travelling from East to West, «though preferring the return journey».

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Italy’s parliament has elected constitutional court judge Sergio Mattarella as the country’s president.

Mr Mattarella, 73, will succeed Giorgio Napolitano, 89, who stood down earlier this month citing «signs of fatigue».

The result, confirmed on a third day of voting, will be seen as a boost for Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who nominated Mr Mattarella.

Italy’s president is largely a ceremonial role, but includes the power to appoint a prime minister.

That power is one quite frequently invoked in Italy, where politics is famously volatile.

Mr Napolitano named five prime ministers during his eight-and-a-half-years in office.

Analysis: James Reynolds, BBC News, Rome

Sergio Mattarella comes from a prominent Sicilian family which bears the scars of a painful fight against organised crime.

In 1980, the Mafia shot and killed Mr Mattarella’s elder brother Piersanti, then the island’s governor. Sergio Mattarella entered politics three years later, as a member of parliament for the now-defunct Christian Democrat party.

He later became a minister in several governments and once stood down in opposition to plans to make it easier for Silvio Berlusconi’s media empire to expand.

Most recently. Mr Mattarella has been a justice of Italy’s Constitutional Court. But he continues to be most well-known here as a politician and ally of the Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.

Sergio Mattarella’s election to the presidency is widely seen as a significant political victory for the prime minister.

Applause

Mr Mattarella was elected after three inconclusive rounds of voting, in which no candidate secured the two-thirds majority needed to win.

Saturday’s fourth round required merely a simple majority of the 1,009 eligible voters to produce a result.

Applause broke out in the Chamber of Deputies as Mr Mattarella’s vote passed the 505-vote threshold.

He is expected to be sworn in next week.

Tens of thousands of people have massed in central Madrid for a rally organised by radical Spanish leftists Podemos.

The «March for Change» is one of the party’s first outdoor mass rallies, as it looks to build on the recent victory of its close allies Syriza in Greece.

Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias told the crowd a «wind of change» was starting to blow through Europe.

Podemos has surged ahead in opinion polls, and has vowed to write off part of Spain’s debt if it comes to power.

The BBC’s Tom Burridge in Madrid says that there has been an impressive turnout and a carnival atmosphere at the rally.

Several of Madrid’s main avenues became a sea of people and purple, the party’s colour, he says, after its supporters travelled from all over Spain.

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The US says it will not hand back the Guantanamo Bay naval base as part of efforts to improve relations with Cuba.

Cuban President Raul Castro included the demand in a speech on Wednesday, calling also for the US trade embargo to be lifted.

US President Barack Obama «does believe that the prison at Guantanamo Bay should be closed down… but not the naval base», the White House said.

The land on which the base stands was leased to the US by Cuba in 1903.

The Cuban government which came to power in the revolution of 1959 has long demanded its return, saying it is a violation of international law, but the US points to a legal provision making the lease permanent unless it is terminated by mutual agreement.

Last month the two countries announced a thaw in relations, agreeing to restore diplomatic ties severed in 1961. Delegations have begun negotiating the re-establishment of embassies.

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The Libyan representative to the oil producers’ organisation Opec has been released, more than two weeks after being kidnapped.

Samir Salem Kamal had been seized after leaving work in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, on 15 January.

His family said he was in good health considering the situation, but shaken up by his ordeal.

They said the identities of his kidnappers — and their motives — remained unclear.

Mr Kamal has been Libya’s representative to Opec — a 12-member organisation of oil-producing nations — for two years, and was also a senior manager at the planning and training department in Libya’s Ministry of Oil.

The country has been in a state of growing chaos and conflict in recent months.

Competing militias have been ruling the country since the overthrow of Col Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

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