No-confidence vote: Is the EU Parliament about to break?

EU Confidential

POLITICO

Politics, News Commentary, News

4.4 • 175 Ratings

🗓️ 11 July 2025

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Ursula von der Leyen survived a motion of censure — but not without sustaining damage. In Strasbourg, tensions within her pro-European coalition burst into the open, with allies accusing her party of flirting with the far right (again) and warning they could soon turn on her. In this bumper episode, host Sarah Wheaton — who made the journey to Strasbourg — brings you insight from behind the scenes in the European Parliament. She speaks with Gheorghe Piperea, the Romanian hard-right MEP who authored the motion; Socialist Vice President of the Parliament Katarina Barley; and senior EPP lawmaker Siegfried Mureșan. And in a gripping, deeply personal dispatch from Kyiv, Veronika Melkozerova takes us inside the terrifying reality of life under relentless Russian bombardment — a must-listen glimpse into the emotional and physical toll of war. You can read Veronika's essay here: Reporter’s notebook: My deadly routine in Kyiv. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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1:07.9	That sound you're hearing is the sound of a major release in pressure.
1:14.6	I'm here in Strasbourg where we just had one of the most tense weeks in European politics that people here have ever seen.
1:17.6	As I sit here in sort of an airy corridor right near the media area of the European Parliament,
1:25.6	people are slowly filing out, but they just went through a pretty tense process, a vote
1:32.4	of no confidence.
1:34.7	Now, they're a regular feature of national politics, but in Brussels or this week, Strasbourg,
	...

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