00:00Siguiente, el gobierno de la Secretaría de Venezuela,
00:08Europa su mayoranteante política, el Partido Central Europeo Europeo
00:13tiene que interpretar en un partido populismo y en el Partido del Pato de Venezuela.
00:18El presidente Manfred Weber ha ocurriendo con esta-apa congresión, en Valencia, España.
00:25Gracias por estar con nosotros en este congresista en Valencia.
00:32¿Qué es la nueva mensaje a los votos?
00:35Porque todo se cambia en este mundo.
00:38Estamos viviendo en un mundo de Trumps y Orbán.
00:41¿Tienes una nueva narrativa, una nueva mensaje?
00:44Nosotros mensajes son escuchar a la gente, liderar y también liderar.
00:51Que nos solucionemos los problemas.
00:52Y usted dice que la gente se siente confundida, la gente se siente incertidumbre en su desarrollo.
00:57La gente se siente lo que está haciendo, lo que está haciendo, lo que está haciendo, lo que está entregando todos los días en incertidumbre.
01:03Y en este momento de tiempo, nuestro concepto de ser concreto en nuestras promesas es fundamental.
01:09Déjame recordarles que nuestros principales promesas en la última campaña
01:12fueron la cuestión de competitividad y la seguridad económica.
01:15Fue una mención de seguridad, especialmente de defensa,
01:20de protegerlos contra el brutal dictadito de Putin.
01:25Y la democracia, sobre la ley de la ley, sobre la estructura de la Unión Europea.
01:30Y soy muy orgullo de que a partir de la TISA, la mayor oposición de la República, el Viktor Orbán,
01:35Join the EPP group is part of our family and also Donald Tusk showed in Poland that we are the party of rule of law, of democracy in Europe.
01:43These are the three pillars for our mandate and there European People's Party is now 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 today with the voters?
01:57Well, the precondition for everything is delivering on content, living conditions for our people.
02:02You know, have economic growth, jobs for especially the young generation, not accepting first and second class Europeans in Europe.
02:10You know, some parts of Europe don't feel equally treated than other parts of Europe and that has to stop.
02:16So these kind of things, there we have to deliver finally.
02:19Also now the main challenge of building up a European pillar of defense, there we have to deliver now and work on this.
02:26But probably you're right because the main competitor for me for the next upcoming years is not anymore the center-left,
02:36where I would hope that socialists are becoming again the Workers' Party of Europe, you know, close to the car manufacturers and so on,
02:44which are not yet the case in this moment of time.
02:46So the main competitor for us for the next years are the populists and the extremists.
02:52We are facing an authoritarian wave all over the world and it is also coming and arriving in Europe.
02:59And that's why the biggest job for us as the biggest party of Europe, as the center-right party, as EPP,
03:04is 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 say, 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,
03:38a convincing understanding about where is the future of our society.
03:42For example, on the question of the defence union, we speak currently about common procurement.
03:48But Adenauer, de Gasperi and Schumann, they spoke about lasting peace in Europe, forgiveness after the Second World War.
03:55So 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 of jobs we create.
04:02That's important, but, you know, social market economy was the answer towards communism and social market economy won against communism.
04:12And today our market must win against authoritarian concept of China.
04:18Is China providing more economic growth or is our European model providing more social justice 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 orientation,
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 this content.
04:47Let me come back for one question on the issue with the populists and, as you said, autocrats.
04:53How do you want to fight them when the EPP is voting with them together many times in the European Parliament
04:59when it comes to Green Deal or other issues?
05:03Well, 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.
05:12So pro-Ukraine, pro-rule of law and pro-Europe.
05:15But there are fundamental things for us.
05:17So you can name them.
05:19It's Le Pen in France.
05:20It's AFD in Germany.
05:22There will be never 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,
05:34that they are credible, that they are center-based.
05:36Petr Fiala in 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 a European level.
05:43So that's why I work together with the serious ones.
05:46But with those who are really taking Europe into question,
05:49like PIDEL 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 years ago,
06:00when it comes to migration, when it comes to the green policies?
06:03I wouldn't say so, because, you know, we had already three years ago tough discussions about legislation like nature restoration law.
06:11It was one of these symbolic debates we had in the last mandate,
06:15where the left-leaning Franz Timmermans thinking was not anymore reflecting what the people asked us to do.
06:21And 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,
06:37and that's why EPP won elections in the last years.
06:41And we do this serious, we do this European way, we do it also based on rule of law,
06:46like the Geneva Convention, like respecting the asylum right in Europe.
06:50We 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 answers in today's world.
06:59Isn't the EPP too powerful right now with 12 heads of state at the European Council
07:05and leadership of the European Commission,
07:08and you in one person being the leader of the big EPP family and also of the EPP group.
07:15I 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,
07:30and they gave us a mandate, they voted.
07:32Here in Spain, in Hungary, in Germany, in Finland, they voted.
07:35And they decided to stop the period of a left-liberal-driven agenda
07:42and now coming back to a center-right-driven agenda.
07:44That's normal in democracy.
07:47But what is a bigger problem is that when people vote for another European parliament,
07:51for a center-right European parliament, things must change.
07:54You know, we cannot continue as the left wish to see that then we continue as nothing happens.
08:00My spirit is, I'm a Democrat.
08:02You know, we won elections.
08:03We have a mandate to leave.
08:05But we do this together with the others, with the liberals, with the socialists,
08:09and also with the conservative voters,
08:11who 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 of Donald Trump.
08:23Does Europe have enough self-confidence as one of the biggest markets
08:27and one of the richest regions of the world to, you know, stand up and stand its ground?
08:33Yes, I would say yes.
08:36In this moment of time, I'm quite positive.
08:38When it is about the answer on tariffs, for example, our answer was a strong one,
08:44but also not trying to escalate.
08:46So it was a balanced approach.
08:48Look to what are we doing with the digital world,
08:52so that we are implementing the Digital Market Act,
08:54Digital Service Act into today's communication forms.
08:58There we don't follow the Vance, the Vice President Vance concentration,
09:01that everything is allowed.
09:03No, in Europe not everything is allowed.
09:05You cannot lie, you cannot do hate speeches there,
09:07you cannot be anti-Semitic in today's world, in Europe.
09:09Not everything is allowed.
09:11And this implementation of our rules is making us self-confident,
09:15that we believe in the European way of life,
09:18not 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 defense side
09:27and the common external affairs policies,
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,
09:39we can do it without our American friends?
09:41I think that must be the aim, the idea,
09:45that in 2030, at the latest,
09:47we must be capable to defend ourselves.
09:50And Europe has all resources, have all capabilities,
09:53and 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,
10:04but in principle we define,
10:06we have the same thinking about democracy,
10:09about values, about freedom.
10:11And that's why we stick with our European pillar of defense,
10:14to NATO and to the common engagement on the transatlantic side.
10:17And right now the European Union is willing to spend
10:20800 billion euros on defense, rearmament, Europe.
10:25This means also less money for hospitals,
10:28for housing, less money for schools.
10:31How do you want to explain this to your voters?
10:33Well, in this moment of time,
10:34we also allow member states to borrow more money.
10:38So we pay this more on future perspective,
10:41not so much on the current investments.
10:43So people should not be so much worried about this.
10:45But on the other hand,
10:46without peace, without stability,
10:50the rest is not important anymore.
10:51So what we have to do is to protect stability,
10:55peace inside of Europe.
10:56And the precondition is that we can defend ourselves.
10:59I think people understand the logic behind.
11:02And we do this in a way that we can secure our social welfare system,
11:06and that we can secure the investments in a climate-friendly,
11:10in a digital world of tomorrow.
11:12So there are a lot of issues on the table,
11:14and we only can manage this if things are balanced finally.
11:17Let 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.
11:27You as a faithful Catholic,
11:29how will you preserve his heritage in your political life?
11:33I would hope that we keep our societies
11:36and also the Catholic world together,
11:38because the different parts, the different sections,
11:41the different bubbles inside of our societies
11:43are getting bigger and bigger,
11:45and we have to unify again.
11:46That's also in the tradition of the Catholic Church,
11:49and also in the tradition of the European People's Party.
11:52Manfred Weber, thanks very much for this interview.
11:54I thank you so much.
11:55I thank you so much.
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