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EU Confidential

How not to fall: Behind von der Leyen’s fightback and Macron’s meltdown

EU Confidential

POLITICO

Politics, News Commentary, News

4.4175 Ratings

🗓️ 10 October 2025

⏱️ 45 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

While the French government collapses in Paris, Ursula von der Leyen stands unshaken in Strasbourg. It’s been a week of political tremors — some performative, others seismic. Just three months after facing her first motion of censure, the European Commission president was hit with not one but two new attempts to topple her — and once again held firm. Host Sarah Wheaton talks with Sophia Russack of the Centre for European Policy Studies about the history of no-confidence votes — and the unlikely scenario in which one might actually succeed. From the buzzing corridors of the European Parliament in Strasbourg she also catches up with Greens MEP Marie Toussaint, Socialist René Repasi, Marc Botenga from The Left, and Anders Vistisen from Patriots for Europe — to unpack the politics behind these censure motions and whether they’re becoming a new ritual. And in Paris, POLITICO’s Clea Caulcutt breaks down a very real political crisis — the collapse of the French government, an event that further weakened President Emmanuel Macron, bolstered the far-right National Rally and sent shockwaves all the way to Strasbourg. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

So I'm running super late.

0:04.5

This is pretty typical for me.

0:08.6

Hopefully I will pass quickly through security.

0:12.7

Okay.

0:17.0

I'm in Strasbourg. I am rushing through the elaborate entrance of the European Parliament to get to a meeting.

0:26.9

I chose a stupid door where this one side has to close before the other opens.

0:32.2

I came here because this plenary session promised drama. Two motions of censure against Ursula Fonder Lion,

0:40.0

two fresh attempts to topple the commission president. It sounded like a pretty big deal.

0:45.5

I have to get to the seventh floor, and I'm a little paranoid that, like, I'm going to end up in an elevator

0:52.3

where I have to have some special badge.

0:55.8

So I booked interviews with MEPs

0:57.8

all over this confusing complex,

1:00.4

trying to take their pulse

1:01.5

to see how they'd vote

1:03.2

and whether anyone really thought

1:04.9

Fonder Lyon was in danger.

1:07.7

Hey, Val.

1:09.3

See that elevator? I just tried.

1:11.1

It only goes to the fifth floor.

1:13.6

I'm still recovering from a minor foot injury.

1:16.6

But ever the devoted reporter, I sprinted, limped, and climbed my way through the maze of corridors.

1:23.9

That elevator didn't work.

...

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