State of the Union: Von der Leyen and Metsola reelected, Trump nominated
This edition of State of the Union focuses on the reelection of Ursula von der Leyen and Roberta Metsola and the state of play of the U.S. presidential campaign.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Hello and welcome to the State of the Union. I'm Stefan Grobe in Strasbourg. It's still
00:10July, but for European lawmakers it felt like back to school day. Following the European
00:15elections in June, the new and old members of the European Parliament gathered in Strasbourg
00:20for the first plenary session of the new legislative season. The 720-member chamber is the EU's
00:26only directly elected institution. It negotiates and adopts EU legislative proposals and approves
00:33the bloc's budget. On top of the agenda this week, the election of the top positions in
00:39Parliament and Commission. No real surprise here, as Roberta Mazzola and Ursula von der
00:44Leyen were both confirmed in office. Mazzola, who easily won a second term, got a little
00:50emotional when she recalled what Europe meant to her when she grew up in Malta.
00:57To me, Europe was worth fighting for. It was never perfect, but we looked to the European
01:05Parliament, to this Strasbourg hemicycle, as a symbol of standards, of opportunity,
01:14of reconciliation. It was our guarantee of the rule of law, of equality, of democracy,
01:23of liberty, of prosperity. While all eyes were on Strasbourg this week, it was business
01:30as usual in Brussels. And for the EU Commission, it meant grappling with the drama of the presidential
01:35election in the United States. The attempted assassination of Donald Trump in Pennsylvania
01:40sent shockwaves through the corridors of power in Brussels. The EU's foreign policy
01:45chief reacted with condemnation and relief.
01:49Fortunately, the attack on Trump was not what they wanted it to be. He is alive, thank God,
01:58and we hope that the campaign will normalize and that the Americans will decide what they
02:03think is appropriate.
02:05The assassination attempt paired with the struggle inside the Democratic Party over
02:09whether President Joe Biden should drop out of the race have dramatically upended the
02:13election campaign. At the Republican convention in Milwaukee this week, Trump was celebrated
02:19as a hero and a survivor of evil. Republicans are now more confident than ever before that
02:25they will win in November, even beat Biden in a landslide.
02:30So do we all have to fasten our seatbelts and get ready for another Trump administration
02:34in Washington? What does that mean for Europe?
02:38Joining me now is Maida Ruge, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign
02:42Relations based in Berlin. Welcome to the program.
02:46Thank you, Stefan. Thank you for having me.
02:49Following the assassination attempt, Trump and Biden have called for unity. How long
02:54can that moment last or is it already over?
02:58Well, the sort of unity that we're actually seeing is more in the Republican Party, I
03:02would say. I think Trump's call for unity is also a very subtle and intelligent tactics
03:09to reach out to either undecided or disgruntled Biden voters in the swing states.
03:16So, you know, I'm not expecting a sudden turn to national unity, really, but more kind of
03:26an approach of unifying the Republican Party and then reaching out to voters that might
03:31be useful for President Trump.
03:34European leaders have been preparing for a Trump victory in November. Will they have
03:38to step up their efforts now?
03:42They definitely will have. I think the key question really on these preparations is not
03:49whether they should prepare and step up, but when they should have started. And I think
03:54they should have started a long time ago, at least two years ago. Now it's very clear
03:59that there will be a radical shift in the U.S. foreign policy if Trump is reelected
04:05and that Europeans will be faced with multiple policy shocks at the same time, starting from
04:12potential withdrawal of U.S. aid for Ukraine over radical downsizing of U.S. presence,
04:20military presence in Europe and their role in NATO through trade protectionism.
04:26That will bring a possible vice president, J.D. Vance, to future U.S.-EU relations.
04:31Well, if you kind of look at his foreign policy profile, not that he has an active one as
04:40a government official, but he has been quite vocal and active, both in terms of interview
04:47statements and op-eds. He is a big, big skeptic of U.S. support for Ukraine. He thinks that
04:58the wealthy European nations, and he has singled out Germany many times, are the ones who are
05:04responsible for really financing and paying for this war. He is kind of a restrainer in
05:15heart, but in fact, on foreign policy, a big prioritizer of China and Taiwan. So I think that
05:23one thing we can expect as Europeans, if Trump is elected, is that J.D. Vance's appointment as
05:32vice president is going to draw in many of the foreign policy experts in the Republican ecosystem
05:39who have long been arguing that a radical shift of military and financial resources need to be made
05:48from Europe and Ukraine to China and Taiwan.
05:51All right, Maida Aruga, Senior Policy Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.
05:55Thanks for breaking it all down for us.
05:58Thanks for having me.
06:02Now, if you're in that part of Europe that is suffering from sweltering heat,
06:06here's a way to deal with it. Ice.
06:09A lot of it. Animals at the Prague Zoo were given ice by the ton to provide much-needed
06:15relief from the summer heat. The ice was strategically placed around the zoo,
06:20creating cool spots where animals could find refuge from scorching temperatures.
06:25This was particularly welcomed by animals like polar bears, whose natural habitat is cold
06:31all the time. It's fun and a distraction for the animals, said the director of the zoo.
06:38And because humans are like animals, well, sometimes, the zoo also offered ice to visitors,
06:45mainly children, to cool down and have fun as well. It's so easy to make new friends.
06:54That's it for this edition. I'm Stefan Grober. Thank you for watching. Have an excellent week.