European People’s Party (EPP) president Manfred Weber continues to make headlines this week. Instead of calming fears that his party wants to give even more power to Brussels, Weber’s latest comments show how he demands EU centralisation in Parliament while telling the media he backs easing EU climate rules.
In a recent interview, the Bavarian politician boasted that he had convinced European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen to review EU emissions rules and rethink the 2035 ban on combustion engines. “The combustion engine will return, and that means for consumers that all options in terms of engines will continue to be allowed in Europe,” he declared.
Weber claimed he was being pragmatic, unlike the Left’s “ideological approach.” He stressed the need for “more affordable” electric cars for ordinary Europeans. The EPP leader also said China was the main threat and backed tariffs on its manufacturers, while calling for the easing of regulations to allow European companies to produce more cheaply. This was a surprising change of script, given he had previously supported outsourcing to China.
But this clashed with his speech in Strasbourg just two days earlier during the State of the Union debate. There, Weber openly opposed the idea of national sovereignty, going so far as to state that “sovereignty no longer exists” and that Europe’s future depends on centralizing power in Brussels. His message was clear: only an “irreversible” Union in foreign and defense policy will be able to survive in a hostile world.
The EPP leader—and possible candidate to succeed Von der Leyen in 2029—is now celebrating the reversal of climate policies he previously supported, underlining the political opportunism behind his shift. He knows Europe’s automotive industry is in trouble: 90,000 jobs lost in a single year, a decline in competitiveness compared to Asia, while the middle class is increasingly impoverished and unable to affordf an electric car.
The gap between what Weber says in Brussels and what he tells the media points to a clear strategy: push for more power in Brussels while backpedaling on economic issues to calm public anger. It might buy the EPP some time, but it also forces the party to admit its green agenda has failed — and to present this retreat as “pragmatism” rather than a response to mounting social and economic pressure.
