Ursula’s Fight Song — who’s singing along?

EU Confidential

POLITICO

Politics, News Commentary, News

4.4 • 175 Ratings

🗓️ 12 September 2025

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

“Europe is in a fight.” With those words, Ursula von der Leyen set the tone for her State of the European Union speech — framing this as Europe’s “Independence Moment.” She proposed sanctions on extremist Israeli ministers over Gaza; floated using frozen Russian assets for Ukraine; and backed calls for a drone wall to protect the bloc's eastern flank against Russia. She also pledged action on jobs, poverty and housing. But were those fighting words enough to bridge the gap between promises and reality — or did they simply paper over a fraying coalition? Host Sarah Wheaton is joined by Rym Momtaz, editor-in-chief of Carnegie Europe’s Strategic Europe blog; Carsten Brzeski, ING’s global head of macro research; and Sorcha Edwards, secretary general of Housing Europe, to unpack the geopolitics, economics and social policy in the speech. We’ll also hear from POLITICO’s Max Griera in Strasbourg, with on-the-ground reactions from MEPs — and look across the border to France, where President Emmanuel Macron faces fresh political turmoil after the government of Prime Minister François Bayrou collapsed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Under Siege.
0:05.0	That's how everything felt in the moment when Ursula Fonder Lyon stepped up to give her most important speech of the year earlier this week.
0:14.0	Europe itself felt under siege.
0:17.0	In Poland, NATO fighter jets were scrambling to take down some Russian drones,
0:21.6	bringing us closer to open conflict, as Prime Minister Donald Tusk put it,
0:26.4	than at any time since World War II.
0:30.5	And Fondra Lyon herself, as a leader, was facing unprecedented political pressure.
0:36.1	Everyone's got beef with her, it seems.
0:39.4	Mad about her trade deal with Trump, mad about the commission's inaction on Gaza,
0:44.6	mad about her party's moves to cozy up to the far right. A recent survey in five European
0:50.5	countries found that six in ten respondents want her to resign.
0:56.8	So that's the state of the politics.
0:59.6	What is the state of the European Union, according to Fonder Lyon?
1:04.3	Europe is in a fight, a fight for a continent that is whole and at peace, a fight for our values, a fight for our liberty and our
1:14.1	ability to determine our destiny for ourselves. Make no mistake, this is a fight for our future.
1:26.2	You know, usually the State of the European Union speeches are a bit of a snooze.
1:31.0	So there's some stock taking, this sort of Christmas tree of vague policy proposals,
1:37.3	lots of buzzwords like competitiveness repeated endlessly.
1:41.9	But this time, Fonder Lion came out swinging, swashbuckling even.
1:48.0	Proposing to punish the Israeli government.
1:51.0	We will propose sanctions on the extremist ministers and on violent settlers.
1:57.0	Pushing to use frozen Russian assets for Ukraine.
	...

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