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Europe Today: Russland bedroht Europa, Ceuta-Krise, AfD vorn im Osten
Russland nimmt Europäer ins Visier, um EU-Staats- und Regierungschefs zu spalten und Angst zu schüren. Spaniens Premier Sánchez steht nach tausenden irregulären Migranten in Ceuta unter Druck, in Ostdeutschland liegt die AfD bei einer Kommunalwahl vorn.
LESEN SIE MEHR : http://de.euronews.com/2026/09/04/europe-today-russland-bedroht-europa-ceuta-krise-spitzt-sich-zu-afd-vorne-im-osten
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Russland nimmt Europäer ins Visier, um EU-Staats- und Regierungschefs zu spalten und Angst zu schüren. Spaniens Premier Sánchez steht nach tausenden irregulären Migranten in Ceuta unter Druck, in Ostdeutschland liegt die AfD bei einer Kommunalwahl vorn.
LESEN SIE MEHR : http://de.euronews.com/2026/09/04/europe-today-russland-bedroht-europa-ceuta-krise-spitzt-sich-zu-afd-vorne-im-osten
Abonnieren Sie! Euronews gibt es in 12 Sprachen.
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00:24Euronews
00:25Coming up, Russia is actively targeting Europeans in an effort to divide EU leaders and spread fear among European citizens.
00:35That's the main message coming out of Ireland this week, where a series of very high-level EU meetings have
00:41been taking place since Monday.
00:44Our correspondent Shona Murray is on the ground, where she sat down exclusively with France's European Affairs Minister, Benjamin Haddad.
00:51And Ukraine risks losing billions in international funding after failing to advance legislation required by the International Monetary Fund.
01:01We'll hear exclusively from the Finance Minister of Ukraine, Sergei Martenko, who says the war intensified very quickly in August.
01:08He's calling on allies to start thinking outside the box.
01:12Plus, local elections with huge consequences.
01:17All eyes are on Saxony-Anhalt in eastern Germany this weekend, where the far-right anti-EU AFD is soaring
01:25high in the polls.
01:26We'll check what this could mean for the CDU party of Friedrich Merz, with live analysis from our correspondent in
01:33Magdeburg.
01:33But first, to Spain, where Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and his government are having a very difficult week.
01:40More than a month after thousands of irregular migrants entered Ceuta, the small Spanish city in North Africa, Pedro Sánchez
01:47is facing calls to step down.
01:49Speaking in Parliament, he defended his government's handling of the crisis and denied that there was any evidence that Moroccan
01:56authorities had orchestrated the massed crossing.
02:01Our agents had to make an operational decision in a few minutes.
02:05They had to choose between momentarily guaranteeing the border's tightness or defending human life.
02:10And they chose to defend human life.
02:14We have also requested financial and institutional support from the European Commission.
02:20Let's face it, it did not set the example of solidarity that I believe all Spaniards expecting during these days.
02:26Certainly, in Spain, we say that the European Union is above all about solidarity.
02:30It was in La Medusa.
02:32It is so in Greenland.
02:33And it is also so in the Canary Islands.
02:37For reactions now from the opposition on how this is impacting Spain and also, of course, EU migration policy,
02:42we're joined now by Antonio López Estudis, Spanish MEP from the European People's Party.
02:47Good morning, Mr. López.
02:48Thank you so much for joining us.
02:50Now, we've seen Spaniards protesting this week over the government's handling of the crisis.
02:54Tell me, what would your party have done differently here?
02:58Good morning, Maif, and thank you very much for this invitation.
03:03Of course, our party would have paid attention in government to the reports that were given by the national police
03:11and the intelligence services two days before, advising the government about the crisis that was going to be developed.
03:20That is where the prime minister of Spain lied clearly.
03:25He always maintained during the whole month of August that there was no information, that they didn't know anything about
03:32it.
03:32But now we know, thanks to the leaking, unfortunately, but this is the case of reports, you know, that tell
03:41us a very different story.
03:42So what role do you believe Morocco played here?
03:47A role who played who?
03:48Morocco.
03:50Ah, Morocco.
03:51Well, it is clear from these reports, and this will, it's now in the hands of the judges in Spain.
03:57I will go through the usual judiciary process of investigation.
04:01But there are these leaking photographs of Moroccan police helping these 80,000 people descending from trucks and going into
04:14the Spanish frontier.
04:15I cannot tell you this is true or not.
04:17Judges will tell us, you know, and the further investigation.
04:20But it is clear that at some level, it seems that Morocco was involved in this.
04:26This is not, by the way, the first time.
04:28Remember that in 2021, already the European Parliament condemned the Spanish government for doing exactly the same.
04:34Nothing against this kind of test from the Moroccan government.
04:39And there's a lot of disinformation and misinformation online as well about this episode.
04:43Do you think that there's Israeli bots or Russian bots here responsible, like Pedro Sánchez has suggested?
04:48No, no, this is the usual neighboring relation, you know, that has happened before.
04:54At that time in 2021, Israel or the United States, no one had Russia, no one had nothing to do.
05:00It's always the same.
05:02It's Morocco testing the will of a government in Spain to keep the frontier safe for Spain and Europe.
05:09Of course, now the moment is clear.
05:12The Spanish government is surrounded by scandals, corruption.
05:18A minister was condemned for 24 years in jail for corruption.
05:22The wife of the prime minister, his brother, are indicted.
05:26I mean, what else can you ask here?
05:28You know, this is weakness.
05:30The Spanish government is weak.
05:32And unfortunately, this is also European interests.
05:35OK, Antonio López Estoriz, thank you so much for joining us this morning and bringing the view from the European
05:40People's Party on that crisis that's hit Spain.
05:43But now moving on, the EU is on high alert as NATO Secretary General Marco Dutta and security services within
05:49EU member states say Russia is actively targeting European states
05:53with the intention of striking fear among citizens over the government support of Ukraine.
05:58For more, we can bring in now our correspondent Shona Murray, who's been in Dublin for us all week covering
06:03these high stake talks.
06:05So, Shona, the message really seems to be here to stay vigilant.
06:11That's right, Maeve.
06:12I mean, the context of this, of course, is that watershed moment last month when German security authorities intercepted an
06:19explosive-laden drone at Leipzig Airport.
06:22And then this week we had the German government formally attribute blame to the Kremlin.
06:27So it marks a step up or a development in the confrontation between Europe and the Kremlin.
06:32And with that, we have security organizations in Denmark and France saying that the Kremlin is actively targeting European countries
06:40with a bid to unravel support for Ukraine and also, of course, cause harm.
06:44And with that, I caught up with Benjamin Haddad, the French EU affairs minister, and I asked him about this
06:50threat.
06:51This is the first test for European security.
06:55And we've only accelerated and increased our support for Ukraine at the European level in the last month.
07:01Remember where we were just a year and a half ago, after the Oval Office meeting between President Trump, President
07:06Zelensky, Vice President Vence,
07:08when many people thought that Europeans would stand aside as Ukraine would be forced into capitulation by a deal signed
07:16by Russia and the United States.
07:18On the contrary, we've taken ownership of our own security and defense.
07:22Today, the bulk of support for Ukraine is provided by Europeans.
07:26I suppose it's very hard to define the situation we're in now, because up until now, you've had these sort
07:32of below threshold hybrid attacks.
07:34But as we heard from Mark Rutte, the Secretary General of NATO, and Kaya Callas, these attacks are becoming much
07:39more kinetic, much more frequent, much more violent and reckless.
07:42Are we at war with Russia?
07:45Well, you know, it's not war, but it's certainly not peace.
07:49And this is why we need to continue to increase our effort, first to bolster our defense against these hybrid
07:56attacks.
07:56But would you say, though, the situation we're in now is, let's say, vastly different to even the security situation
08:02a year ago, that we're getting much closer to that confrontation?
08:05I think we've known for a long time that we were facing a threat coming from Russia.
08:09And by the way, we just need to listen to the constant questioning of European security, of the European security
08:16architecture coming from the leaders in the Kremlin.
08:19So I think, you know, the most important thing is stay calm, stay the course, continue to invest in our
08:25security and defense, continue the support for Ukraine, continue the pressure and economic pressure that we're putting on Russia.
08:33You can see, by the way, what's happening on the battlefield with Ukrainians showing incredible ingeniosity and innovation on the
08:42battlefield with drones.
08:43You can see the success of the long range tracks.
08:46They're bringing also the war to Russia with the impact that it's having, including on the Russian people.
08:52Marine Le Pen goes from strength to strength, it appears, despite the fact that, you know, she has a conviction
08:58for misuse of funds,
08:59which something you would imagine voters would be something they would put them off.
09:04What have you guys done wrong?
09:06You know, I think you see the rise of the far right and populist everywhere in Europe.
09:11And we should take this with a lot of humility.
09:14And our first responsibility, first, is to continue to deliver on results.
09:18But I know something for sure.
09:20The French are deeply pro-European.
09:21The French are proud of the role that their country is playing on the European stage.
09:26And Marine Le Pen, for a long time, has been the candidate of Brexit.
09:31She's been the candidate of leaving the euro.
09:33She was the candidate of the alliance with Vladimir Putin.
09:36She's trying to make people forget about all of this.
09:39And sometimes even says that it never happened, even though we know her stance on the European Union for a
09:44long time.
09:45At the same time, they're getting stronger.
09:48And they did ever so well at the European Parliament elections.
09:50I think, you know, you have a broader sense of maybe loss of control in globalization.
09:57You have a world that's changing very rapidly, where a lot of the certainties that we had in the 90s
10:02and the 2000s are crumbling.
10:04You know, trade is being weaponized as a tool of pressure.
10:07You see the rise of China and the subsidized overcapacities that are coming to our markets, are destabilizing our industries.
10:17You see our traditional alliances that are being questioned and a war of Russian aggression on our continent.
10:24And so when you have all this transformation, uncertainties, and a lot of the pillars on which we had built
10:30our systems,
10:32or European Union or Transatlantic Alliance that are being questioned, yes, I think, you know,
10:37these periods of transition paved the way very often for radical answers.
10:42I don't think they're the right answer.
10:43I don't think that in a world where you have the pressure from China, from the U.S., the threat
10:48coming from Russia,
10:49we would be stronger going alone.
10:54Meanwhile, Ukraine's finance minister has warned the country is facing serious budget constraints,
10:59the toughest since 2022, when the full-scale war began.
11:03In an exclusive interview with our Europe editor, Maria Tadeo,
11:06Sergei Marchenko urged European finance ministers to, quote,
11:10think outside the box.
11:11He revived calls to use frozen Russian assets as Ukraine heads into another very harsh winter.
11:18We believe that it's fair enough to expect, envisaging another year of war,
11:24that Ukraine needs additional sources to finance their needs.
11:28Definitely, we are in full support of such incentives.
11:32We would like all other European countries to join this incentive.
11:36It's not only Sweden, but also Poland and other countries.
11:40But we would like a broader coalition of countries to discuss this issue during the recent months.
11:47We believe that it's fair enough to expect, envisaging another year of war,
11:53that Ukraine needs additional sources to finance their needs.
11:57And the proposal which we would like to discuss is the possibility to transfer custodians of frozen assets from Belgium
12:07to the European Union.
12:08It will help to settle everything and mitigate the risk.
12:12So explain to me, how is your plan different compared to six months ago?
12:16The plan is definitely different because it creates conditions when it's not the responsibility of Belgium to have any court
12:29disputes, future disputes with Russia.
12:32So it's totally different scenario.
12:34So we don't want this money to operate from the EuroClear side.
12:38We want this money to be transferred into some accounts which operate under European jurisdiction.
12:45Have you detected because governments across Europe are seeing the cost of this war, which they help you finance now
12:51practically alone without the United States, is going up, that has changed their political calculus?
12:57It's better now to tap into Russia rather than to pay out of pocket?
13:01European countries should think out of the box and to discuss broader sources to finance Ukraine needs.
13:07And moreover, from our side, now war intensified very quickly.
13:13So we realized ourselves in totally different reality during last month.
13:18Recent attacks on our logistics, we see that we will expect a very hard winter before us.
13:26It means that escalations means that we should have means to survive these escalations.
13:32But after any escalations, we believe it will be a good possibility to peaceful negotiations.
13:40Okay, so you're saying the budget for next year, including the funding needs, will be based on the idea that
13:45the war will continue.
13:46You also say you're expecting a difficult winter also on the front and that will impact the economy.
13:52What numbers are you working on from just a macro perspective?
13:55Our basic needs to attract foreign financing is the same, practically speaking.
14:02So we are talking about around 50 billion US dollars per year.
14:06And what we realize is that uncovered financial needs for 2027 is rather big.
14:13Our estimate is around 32.6 billion US dollars at this moment.
14:19We are finalizing our budget, and our mission, IMF mission, worked in Kyiv during these three days.
14:26We discussed budget with them in details.
14:31And I believe that we have the same estimates of our uncovered needs as them.
14:35Can you confirm to us that you will ask the European Union to accelerate the payments coming out of the
14:4290 billion euros
14:43that were just approved over Christmas last year?
14:46I am not ready to tell you that we need to accelerate it for a budget needs for 2026.
14:52But your question is about if we have any risk which can materialize in the military field.
15:00Yes, I can tell you for 100% that our Ministry of Defense requested additional money to procure weaponry.
15:09They requested additional 27 billion US dollar or 23.2 billion euro this year to be able to procure some
15:19weaponry
15:20to front load some procurement for 2027.
15:24So we already see some issues with liquidity.
15:30We envisage liquidity shortages in our budget.
15:34It means that we can postpone some payments for later because of lack of sufficient liquidity in our budget.
15:42It means that we have some consequences.
15:47Some payments which are not fully related to war.
15:52Okay, but the consequences would be what?
15:53We didn't have such a situation starting from the beginning of the war.
15:58In 2022, we really did suffer a lot.
16:01We really did feel some lack of sufficient liquidity in our budget accounts.
16:05But right now, we are really too far near the same scenario we had in 2022.
16:13What I detect from you this time around is there's a form of concern.
16:19And I've heard you say it now multiple times.
16:21If there is no cash, we will have to make cuts.
16:23There could be budget cuts imminent.
16:25Difficult winter.
16:26Just how worried are you?
16:28Well, you know, Maria, I am worried, but I prefer to be calm and concentrated.
16:35So because it's not time for worry, it's time for actions.
16:42Now, moving on to Germany, where the far-right AFD party is leading the polls ahead of regional elections this
16:49Sunday
16:49in Saxony-Anhalt in the east of the country, putting Friedrich Merz, governing Conservative CDU, under pressure.
16:56For more on this, we can head now straight to Magdeburg, the capital of the state of Saxony-Anhalt,
17:01where our correspondent, Leora Fleischmann, is standing by for us just outside the very Saxon state parliament.
17:07Good morning, Leora. Just tell us first, what is at stake here?
17:10And what would an AFD government actually look like there?
17:15Good morning to you, too.
17:17And, well, this election could truly send shockwaves through German politics.
17:21This could be the very first far-right state government since Germany was founded, the Federal Republic of Germany, that
17:26is.
17:27And, well, I looked at the party's programme, and it has quite interesting points in it.
17:33And, well, it says that the party demands efforts to put an end to illegal and culturally alien and anti
17:39-native mass migration.
17:41Furthermore, launching a major deportation and re-migration campaign is absolutely necessary, is what the party writes there.
17:47And by winning, the AFD would also gain significant influence over education here in Saxony-Anhalt,
17:53due to the way the German education system is set up.
17:55They want to reinstate school exchanges with Russia, and they also want special classes for refugee children
18:01to show them that their stay in Germany is only temporary.
18:06And the top candidate of the AFD, Ulrich Siegmund, he also stated that he is potentially open to abolishing
18:12the Office for the Protection of the Constitution here in Saxony-Anhalt.
18:16It is an institution that is responsible for monitoring extremist organisations, including the local AFD branch.
18:22Okay, Lara, so that's their manifesto. But the big question, can the AFD actually govern in Saxony-Anhalt?
18:28And what would that mean for Friedrich Merz and for Germany as a whole?
18:33Well, there's one important piece of vocabulary to understand here, and that is the Brandmauer, the firewall.
18:39So far, all the German mainstream parties have refused to cooperate with the AFD.
18:43So this could mean that even if the AFD wins the vote, they won't necessarily be able to govern.
18:48But this could also lead to a very difficult coalition puzzle to solve, since all the other parties either don't
18:54want to cooperate
18:55or they won't be able to form a majority.
18:57And there's one more important factor to know or to be aware of, that is the 5% threshold.
19:02Multiple parties are currently struggling with this, and this could mean that their votes won't translate into seats
19:07and therefore leading to a majority of seats for the AFD, even though they don't have 50% or more
19:14of the votes.
19:15And Friedrich Merz is currently struggling with low approval ratings.
19:18For him, this is truly a test on whether his CDU can actually contain the far right.
19:23Okay, Lara Fleischmann reporting there live from Magdeburg on a story that's been closely watched, of course, here in Brussels.
19:30But that does bring Friday's episode of Europe Today to an end.
19:33Thank you so much for tuning in.
19:34As always, reach out whenever you like, europetoday at yournews.com.
19:38That is our email address.
19:39Thanks for watching, and stay with us on your own news.
19:57We'll see you next time.