Az EPP elnöke: Európának kell átvennie Amerika szerepét a globális stabilitásban
Az EU vezető jobbközép pártjának elnöke az Euronewsnak nyilatkozva elmondta, hogy itt az ideje, hogy Európa lépjen.
BŐVEBBEN : http://hu.euronews.com/2025/05/02/az-epp-elnoke-europanak-kell-atvennie-amerika-szerepet-a-globalis-stabilitasban
Iratkozzon fel: Az Euronews elérhető 12 nyelven
Az EU vezető jobbközép pártjának elnöke az Euronewsnak nyilatkozva elmondta, hogy itt az ideje, hogy Európa lépjen.
BŐVEBBEN : http://hu.euronews.com/2025/05/02/az-epp-elnoke-europanak-kell-atvennie-amerika-szerepet-a-globalis-stabilitasban
Iratkozzon fel: Az Euronews elérhető 12 nyelven
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00:00Europe's biggest political force, the center-right European People's Party, has declared fight
00:14on populist and far-right parties in Europe.
00:18I talked to President Manfred Weber, who has been re-elected at this party congress in
00:23Valencia, Spain.
00:25Mr Weber, thanks very much for being with us at this congress in Valencia.
00:33What is the new message to the voters?
00:36Because everything is changing in today's world, we are living in a world of Trumps and
00:40Orbáns.
00:41Do you have a new narrative, a new message?
00:45Our message is listening to people, leading and then also delivering, that we solve the
00:51problems.
00:52And you said it, people feel confused, people feel uncertainty in their development.
00:58People now experience what America is doing, what Trump is delivering every day on uncertainties.
01:03And in this moment of time, our concept of being concrete on our promises is fundamental.
01:09Let me remind you that our key promises in the last campaign were the question of competitiveness
01:14and economic strengths.
01:16It was a measure of security, especially with defence, with the question of protecting ourselves
01:22against the brutal dictatorship of Putin, and democracy.
01:27So about rule of law, about the inner structure of the European Union, where I am very proud
01:31that parties like the TISA party, the main opposition party, the Viktor Orbán, joined the
01:35EPP group, is part of our family.
01:38And also Donald Tusk showed in Poland that we are the party of rule of law, of democracy in
01:42Europe.
01:43These are the three pillars for our mandate, and there, the European People's Party is
01:47now working hard to deliver on these issues.
01:49So you mentioned rule of law and pro-European-ness, but do you think this message will resonate
01:55today with the voters?
01:58The precondition for everything is delivering on content, living conditions for our people,
02:02have economic growth, jobs for especially the young generation, not accepting first and
02:08second-class Europeans in Europe.
02:11Some parts of Europe don't feel equally treated than other parts of Europe, and that has to
02:16stop.
02:17So these kind of things, there we have to deliver finally.
02:20Also now the main challenge of building up a European pillar of defence, there we have
02:24to deliver now and work on this.
02:26But probably you are right, because the main competitor for me for the next upcoming years
02:33is not anymore the centre-left, where I would hope that socialists are becoming again the
02:40Workers' Party of Europe, you know, close to the car manufacturers and so on, which are
02:45not yet the case in this moment of time.
02:47So the main competitor for us for the next years are the populists and the extremists.
02:53We are facing an authoritarian wave all over the world, and it is also coming and arriving
02:58in Europe.
02:59And that's why the biggest job for us, the biggest party of Europe, the centre-right party
03:03as EPP, is to protect our way of life, to protect our democracy in the European Union,
03:10and there Valencia is the starting point for creating such a vision on the long run.
03:14That's very interesting that you say that you have to fight populist instead of, let's
03:18say, the middle ground of the politics.
03:21But how you will get out the message?
03:24Because people consider EPP people like bureaucrats in Brussels, isn't it?
03:30So you have to be more loud, maybe.
03:32What we have to do is to have again a convincing narrative, a convincing story, a convincing understanding
03:40about where is the future of our society.
03:42For example, on the question of the defence union, we speak currently about common procurement.
03:46But Adenauer de Gasperi and Schumann, they spoke about lasting peace in Europe, forgiveness
03:54after the Second World War.
03:56So that was the level of political discussions.
03:57Or when we speak about economy, it's not so much only about start-ups and about the number
04:01of jobs we create.
04:03That's important.
04:04But, you know, social market economy was the answer towards communism, and social market
04:09economy won against communism.
04:11And today, our market must win against the authoritarian concept of China.
04:18Is China providing more economic growth or is our European model providing more social
04:23justice and economic growth?
04:25So this is the level of discussion we have in front of us.
04:28And I want to see EPP discussing this with a perspective, with a future orientation.
04:33And in a world where America is not anymore the stable anchor and gives not this kind of
04:39orientation.
04:40Europe is even more asked to do so.
04:42And again, the biggest party of Europe must provide Europe exactly with this thinking and
04:46this content.
04:47Let me come back for one question on the issue with the populists and, as you said, autocrats.
04:53How you want to fight them when the EPP is voting with them together many times in the European
04:59Parliament when it comes to the Green Deal or other issues?
05:02Well, I, as party leader, defined a clear red line to the extremists.
05:07We will never work together with those who are not respecting my three pros, so pro-Ukraine,
05:13pro-rule of law, and pro-Europe.
05:15They are fundamental things for us.
05:17So you can name them, it's Le Pen in France, it's AFD in Germany.
05:22There will never be a structured cooperation with them for us as EPP.
05:26So we are ready to include the serious conservative parties in Europe.
05:30For example, Giorgio Meloni showed in Italy, together with Antonio Tajani, that they are
05:34credible, that they are center-based.
05:36Petr Fiala in the Czech Republic is fighting against Babiš and is a conservative politician
05:40and he should be part of a team, of a broader team on European level.
05:43That's why I work together with the serious ones, but with those who are really taking
05:48Europe into question, like Vidal and AFD or Le Pen, there is no cooperation possible at all.
05:53But do you think that the EPP right now is more right-wing than it was, let's say, three
05:59years ago, when it comes to migration, when it comes to the green policies?
06:04I wouldn't say so, because, you know, we had already, three years ago, tough discussions
06:08about legislation like nature restoration law, was obviously symbolic debates we had in
06:13the last mandate, where the left-leaning Franz Timmermans thinking was not anymore reflecting
06:19what the people asked us to do.
06:22And also on, for example, building up fences, if needed, to stop instrumentalization of migration.
06:28We did it in Finland, we did it in Poland, we did it in Greece.
06:31So EPP was always coherent and consistent on this.
06:34I would say today more and more voters follow our approach and that's why EPP won elections
06:39in the last years.
06:41And we do this serious, we do this European way, we do it also based on rule of law, like
06:46the Geneva Convention, like respecting the asylum right in Europe.
06:49We are doing it not like the populist and extremist way.
06:53So that's our middle ground in a way, the serious center-right party, who is providing
06:57answers in today's world.
06:59Isn't the EPP too powerful right now with 12 heads of state at the European Council and
07:05leadership of the European Commission and you in one person being the leader of the big
07:11EPP family and also of the EPP group?
07:14I mean, isn't it too much of responsibility, of power in the European Union?
07:20The mandate you described and the outcome you described is based on elections.
07:26180 million people participated in the last European elections and they gave us a mandate.
07:31They voted.
07:32Here in Spain, in Hungary, in Germany, in Finland, they voted.
07:36And they decided to stop the period of a left, liberal-driven agenda and now coming back to
07:43a center-right-driven agenda.
07:45That's normal in democracy.
07:47What is a bigger problem is that when people vote for another European Parliament, for a
07:51center-right European Parliament, things must change.
07:55You know?
07:56We cannot continue as the left wish to see that then we continue and nothing happens.
08:00My spirit is, I'm a Democrat, you know, we won elections, we have a mandate to leave,
08:05but we do this together with the others, with the liberals, with the socialists and also
08:10with the conservative voters who are committed to be part of a European process.
08:15Let's talk a little bit about geopolitics, because everything is changing under the presidency
08:20of Donald Trump.
08:23Does Europe have enough self-confidence as one of the biggest markets and one of the richest
08:28regions of the world to, you know, stand up and stand its ground?
08:34Yes.
08:35I would say yes.
08:36In this moment of time, I'm quite positive when it is about the answer on tariffs, for
08:41example.
08:42Our answer was a strong one, but also not trying to escalate, so it was a balanced approach.
08:48Look to what are we doing with the digital world, so that we are implementing the Digital
08:53Market Act, Digital Service Act into today's communication forms.
08:58Where we don't follow the Vance, the Vice President Vance, concentration that everything
09:02is allowed.
09:03No, in Europe not everything is allowed.
09:05You cannot lie, you cannot do hate speeches there, you cannot be anti-Semitic in today's
09:08world in Europe.
09:10Not everything is allowed.
09:11And this implementation of our rules is making us self-confident that we believe in the European
09:17way of life, not following the American, the Chinese or the Russian approach.
09:21I don't want to compare them, don't get me wrong.
09:24But where we still need more engagement is the defence side and the common external affairs
09:29policies.
09:30And that's the task ahead of us.
09:32When will Europe be able to defend itself alone?
09:36Will there be ever a time when, you know, we can do it without our American friends?
09:42I think that must be the aim, the idea, that in 2030, at latest, we must be capable to defend
09:48ourselves.
09:50And Europe has all resources, have all capabilities and has also the political will to do it.
09:55So let's do it.
09:56And for us as EPP it's always important to do this together with the American friends.
10:01We have some uncertainty with Washington in their communication, but in principle we define,
10:06and we have the same thinking about democracy, about values, about freedom.
10:11And that's why we stick with our European pillar of defence to NATO and to the common
10:15engagement on the transatlantic side.
10:17And right now the European Union is willing to spend 800 billion euros on defence, rearmament,
10:23Europe.
10:25This means also less money for hospitals, for housing, less money for schools.
10:31How do you want to explain this to your voters?
10:33Well, in this moment of time we also allow member states to borrow more money.
10:38So we pay this more on future perspective, not so much on the current investments.
10:43So people should not be so much worried about this.
10:45But on the other hand, without peace, without stability, the rest is not important anymore.
10:52So what we have to do is to protect stability, peace inside of Europe, and the precondition
10:57is that we can defend ourselves.
10:59I think people understand the logic behind, and we do this in a way that we can secure
11:05our social welfare system, that we can secure the investments in a climate-friendly, in a
11:11digital world of tomorrow.
11:12So there are a lot of issues on the table, and we only can manage this if things are balanced
11:17finally.
11:18Let me ask you one last question.
11:20It's about the heritage of Pope Francis.
11:23He was considered as a very progressive head of the Catholic Church.
11:28You as a faithful Catholic, how will you preserve his heritage in your political life?
11:33I would hope that we keep our societies and also the Catholic world together, because the
11:39different parts, the different sections, the different bubbles inside of our societies
11:43are getting bigger and bigger.
11:45And we have to unify again, that's also in the tradition of the Catholic Church, and also
11:50in the tradition of the European People's Party.
11:52Manfred Weber, thanks very much for this interview.
11:54I thank you so much.