Macron meets von der Leyen to talk Europe and geopolitics, while France is on fire

Brussels – Ahead of next week’s EU leaders’ summit, French President Emmanuel Macron met this morning (17 October) with EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Council António Costa, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. 

The only one physically present at the Elysée Palace was the head of the EU executive, while the other two connected by video call. On social media, von der Leyen thanked Monsieur le Président for an in-depth exchange of views on the geopolitical situation and European competitiveness, two key topics on the agenda for the heads of state and government. 

“We have a busy agenda ahead of us: acceleration of our simplification and decarbonisation programme, resolute support for Ukraine, strengthening of our European defence capabilities, and the role of the European Union in promoting a durable peace in Gaza and its reconstruction,” pointed out the Commission president, who met with Macron for a bilateral on the sidelines of the meeting with Costa and Merz.

Thank you to @EmmanuelMacron for welcoming me to the Élysée Palace for an in-depth discussion on the geopolitical situation and European competitiveness, ahead of next week’s European Council.

We have a busy agenda ahead of us: accelerating our simplification agenda… pic.twitter.com/hiEBtmj13k

– Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) October 17, 2025

At the centre of the discussions next Thursday (23 October) will be several hot topics, as anticipated by Costa himself. On the subject of the war in Ukraine, there will certainly be talk of the face-to-face between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House, which is taking place right now. It should go better than the stormy last February one and rather resemble their recent meeting, at which the Ukrainian president
had himself escorted by half a dozen Old Continent allies. 

But Zelensky’s main demand—to obtain the Tomahawk long-range missiles from the US—may fall on deaf ears for the umpteenth time. Although the tycoon seems to have changed his stance on the conflict,  Kyiv and Brussels are still suspicious about the US administration’s proximity to the Kremlin and its leader, Vladimir Putin, as highlighted in recent hours from a new phone call between the two presidents, as well as, above all, from the decision to arrange a bilateral meeting in Budapest as soon as possible, without Zelensky.

The Hungarian prime minister is already beating the propaganda drum, and this thorny issue was likely addressed this morning by the old guard of Europe at the Élysée Palace. However, this has not been officially confirmed. In parallel, the Magyar leader (together with his Slovakian colleague, Robert Fico, expelled todayfrom the Party of European Socialists) continues to block the adoption of the 19th package of sanctions against Moscow and to dig his heels in
against the EU’s plans to abandon the Federation’s hydrocarbons. 

In Brussels, the leaders of the Twenty-Seven will also discuss the Middle East, a crucial region where Macron is determined to leave his mark as an essential part of his political legacy. Now more than halfway through his second and final term, the French president seems obsessed with this idea. Proof of this is, on the one hand, his activism (in many ways essentially cosmetic) on the recognition of the State of Palestine.

On the other hand, the fact that last Monday (13 October) he flew to Sharm el-Sheikh to attend the signing of the historic peace agreement (sic) between Israel and Hamas, while at home, the worst political crisis of the Fifth Republic was unfolding: Three premiers burned in the space of 15 months, and the fourth,

Sébastien Lecornu, who survived by a handful of votes a double censure in the most divided National Assembly in modern French history. 

A crisis that was triggered by Macron himself last year with the early dissolution of Parliament, and which threatens to render the continent’s second-largest economy dangerously dysfunctional. With public debt and deficits out of control and political instability on the verge of becoming chronic, the trajectory of Paris tells a different story: Macronism has lost its propulsive thrust and, indeed, has thrown fuel on the fire of social conflict, instead of calming or containing it. 

Be that as it may, at the next European summit, France’s seat will still be occupied by Macron. There, with Merz, Costa, and the other heads of state and government, he will also discuss European defence (based on the Readiness 2030 strategy recently presented by the twelve-star executive), competitiveness and simplification, green and digital transition, housing crisis, and migration.