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If a week is long in politics, a year can feel like an eternity.
Third generation of Ursula von der Leyen State of the Union address It deviated in both tone and substance from her previous annual set-piece speech, which focused on the war in Ukraine and the energy crisis it caused.
“They say light shines brightest in the dark,” von der Leyen told MEPs, emphasizing the solidarity shown by individual European citizens to their neighbors in the east.
But in his nearly two-year term, the chairman of the commission has turned to other topics, including protecting democracy, transitioning to a net-zero economy, securing critical raw minerals, and harmonizing tax rules for small businesses. also worked extensively.
She was also careful to avoid complaints of past years about not paying much attention to the French-speaking part of Europe. and both sections lasted the same amount of time (although the overall speech was mostly in English).
POLITICO’s digit calculator turned our attention to analyzing von der Leyen’s libretto.
With Ukraine at the forefront, the tone of his speech was darker than usual. The word “war” alone mentioned him 16 times. Compared to last year’s speech, von der he-Rijen devoted little time to other policy areas such as health and technology, with terms relating to the economy, energy and fossil resources issues prominently featured.
