EPP President Manfred Weber calls for European leadership as US retreats from global role

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EPP President Manfred Weber calls for European leadership as US retreats from global role  The president of the EU's leading centre-right party told Euronews it is time for Europe to step up.  READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2025/05/02/epp-president-manfred-weber-calls-for-european-leadership-as-us-retreats-from-global-role  Subscribe to our channel. Euronews is available on Dailymotion in 12 languages

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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.

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