Viktor Orbán attends EU Base election speech – Sydsvenskan

Von der Leyen presented her political guidelines for 2024-29 in written and verbal form.

– The fate of Europe depends on what we do next. The choice we face is whether we should be swayed by events around us, or whether we should unite and build our own future together, she told the EU Parliament in Strasbourg.

The German has been president of the European Commission since 2019 and is nominated by the heads of state and government of the member states for five-year terms.

That depends on at least 361 of the 720 members of the European Parliament voting in her favor this afternoon. Otherwise, her political career is essentially over.

To get elected, she now has to speak a little across a wide spectrum, first and foremost to convince the heavy parties in the middle: the conservative European People’s Party, the Social Democrats and the liberals.

– I will never accept demagogues and extremists destroying our European way of life. “I stand here ready to lead this fight together with all the democratic forces in the House,” von der Leyen said, to loud applause.

She received more applause when she spoke about Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s recent meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

——This so-called peace mission was nothing more than a concession. Just two days later, Putin’s planes aimed missiles at a children’s hospital. Von der Leyen said this was not a mistake, but a message.

In the guidelines, she promised a European growth plan with simpler rules for businesses and more investment in research, innovation and sustainable competitiveness. A special defence commissioner will be appointed and Europol, the EU’s joint border guard, will be strengthened to at least 30,000 personnel.

On immigration, she stressed the importance of implementing the asylum agreement that had been voted on, while carefully balancing demands from some parties for asylum processing outside the EU with strong opposition from others.

In terms of the environment, it is committed to signing the “European Maritime Convention”. In addition, von der Leyen hopes to incorporate the goal of reducing emissions by 90% by 2040 into the EU climate law.