Terry Reintke’s Fiery Speech Calls for Climate Action, Integrity, and Political Courage Amid Motion to Censure von der Leyen
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In a tense and emotionally charged debate in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, Terry Reintke, co-president of the Greens/European Free Alliance group (Germany), delivered one of the most impassioned speeches of the session — a sharp critique of the European Commission under President Ursula von der Leyen, calling for urgent climate action, moral clarity, and political accountability.
Reintke’s address came during the parliamentary debate on a motion of censure — a rare and politically explosive move seeking the removal of the European Commission’s leadership. Her speech electrified the chamber, combining environmental urgency with moral outrage.
“Many European citizens feel a lack of leadership coming from this Commission,” she began, accusing von der Leyen’s team of abandoning its early ambitions on climate, social justice, and equality. Reintke praised the Commission’s early successes — the minimum wage directive, the LGBTIQ equality strategy, and strong climate policy efforts — but condemned what she called a “retreat into deregulation and delay.”
She sharply criticized the Commission’s simplification agenda, warning it had become “an entry point for headless deregulation,” undermining environmental targets and damaging business confidence. “Will the Commission stand by its climate commitments, or throw them under the omnibus?” she asked, using the term to mock what she sees as a chaotic approach to policymaking.
Reintke condemned repeated postponements of environmental legislation, highlighting the deforestation law delay as “toxic” and “poisoning trust in Europe’s decision-making.”
Turning to foreign policy, she delivered a stinging rebuke of von der Leyen’s handling of international crises — from “rewarding the bully in the White House” to the EU’s slow reaction to the atrocities in Gaza, which she said “created anger and distrust all across the European Union.”
Her voice rising, Reintke warned: “This has to stop.” She demanded clear, moral leadership on climate, housing, rule of law, and the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.
But she also called for political realism. “Do we really, in this crucial moment, want an institutional crisis?” she asked. “Would reappointing the same Commission, with the same political majorities, solve anything? No. That’s wishful thinking.”
While rejecting the idea of destabilizing the EU amid global threats — from the war in Ukraine to the rise of the far right — Reintke made clear that the Greens would not be silent or complacent. “You can never take the Greens for granted,” she declared. “We demand progress on our issues — but we are ready to engage and solve the problems ahead.”
In one of the debate’s most pointed moments, Reintke turned to von der Leyen’s European People’s Party (EPP), accusing it of political ambiguity:
“Your group must decide — do you stand with the pro-European majority, or with the far right that hates Europe and democracy? That is the question.”
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