How farmers, football and fatigue got Viktor Orban to cave on Ukraine

Angry farmers robbed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban of a good night’s sleep and, in the process, may have helped unlock the funds Ukraine says it needs to keep its war-torn economy going.

In Brussels on Thursday morning, Orban complained to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and European Council President Charles Michel that he’d had a restless night.

Protesters had rolled their tractors into the city overnight, blocking traffic and honking their horns to contest burdensome European Union regulations. Just a day earlier, Orban, the self-styled scourge of the Brussels machine, had been vocally espousing the farmers’ cause.