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.