Recently, Ursula von der Leyen stood before the plenary of the European Parliament in Strasbourg to deliver her annual State of the Union address. The stage was carefully arranged: a solemn atmosphere, carefully chosen words, enthusiastic applause, and a few choreographed standing ovations. It was the EU’s attempt to simulate grandeur. Yet no matter how much the Brussels bubble tries to dress it up as Hollywood, the truth remains: this speech barely penetrated the European public sphere.
Von der Leyen spent much of her time pointing fingers at others—Russia, China, even Trump. The pivot to foreign policy is a classic tactic of embattled politicians eager to deflect from failures at home. Who would dare undermine a leader cast as standing up to Russia or shaping the world order? By contrast, her domestic policy proposals shared a common flaw: they sought to remedy problems created by the EU’s own past interventions. The truth is that the centre-left alliance of EPP, Social Democrats, Liberals, and Greens cannot confront Europe’s structural crises. The only thing uniting them is blind faith in the same tired recipe: more regulation, more taxation, more debt. As this formula produces more problems than it solves, pressure on the coalition will intensify.
