European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen delivered a swashbuckling call for Europe to defend itself against Russia and punish the Israeli government.

Speaking as news screens showed Poland scrambling fighter jets as Russian drones hovered above the NATO country, von der Leyen’s assertive assessment of the State of the European Union on Wednesday directly contrasted her own political standing. On the defensive over a lopsided trade deal with Donald Trump and facing multiple votes of no-confidence in the European Parliament, she disavowed nostalgia and paralysis and took the battle to her opponents.

In a lively first parliamentary session after the summer break, she faced boos and jeers from MEPs ― mainly from the right wing while she talked about Gaza, but later, as she referenced environmentally friendly cars, even from her own side.

“Europe must fight,” she said, acknowledging the uncomfortable shift for a union that started out as a peace project in the ashes of World War II.

Yet as she laid out concrete proposals for boosting Europe’s military might, cracking down on Israel and tackling the housing crisis, von der Leyen was also fighting to maintain her own fraying coalition of pro-European centrists and to show angry voters that Brussels can respond to their growing list of fears in the “unforgiving” world of today. It’s clear that citizens increasingly blame her: six in ten respondents in a recent poll said she should resign over the asymmetric trade deal with U.S. President Donald Trump.

“I will never gamble with people’s jobs or livelihoods,” she said of the deal.

Overtaken by events

The first State of the European Union speech of her second administration was closely guarded, with rank and file staffers in the Commission’s own communications department only receiving the prepared text shortly before von der Leyen stepped up to center of the Strasbourg hemicycle.

Yet the 7,500-word speech made no references to events that consumed the headlines in the last hours of its drafting: Israel’s brazen strike on Hamas officials in Qatar and Russia’s incursion into Polish airspace with drones that pushed Europe, as Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk put it, “closer to open conflict… than at any time since the Second World War.”

Nonetheless, von der Leyen did offer new ideas for both hot zones.

As ongoing U.S. support for NATO remains in doubt, von der Leyen proposed an “Eastern Flank Watch,”  including funding for a so-called drone wall long sought by Baltic countries, as well as a space surveillance system. She also suggested using Russian frozen assets to issue a “Reparations Loan” to finance Ukraine in the years to come.

She also signaled a change in her own approach to the Netanyahu government. Criticized by some capitals in the wake of Hamas’ brutal Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israeli civilians for setting no limits on Israel’s right to defend itself, von der Leyen on Wednesday said a “man-made famine” in Gaza is part of a “systematic shift in the last months that is simply unacceptable.”

There’s little the Commission can do on its own, but von der Leyen made a vague promise to stop “bilateral payments” to Israel. With the left side of the chamber awash with red-dressed lawmakers commemorating Gaza victims, von der Leyen also proposed more severe punishments — suspending a trade agreement with Israel and sanctioning extremist ministers.

Those measures, while a marked toughening of the Commission’s approach, are unlikely to win the necessary support in a consistently divided Council, made up of the EU’s 27 national governments.

Clinging to the coalition

A year ago, just months after voters pushed the European Parliament to the right in the 2024 election, von der Leyen told MEPs of her plans to embrace a Europe that does less. Cutting red tape was the mantra.“Competitiveness” was in, “climate” was out.

The outcome has resulted in growing frustration among socialist, liberal and Green lawmakers, who have historically cooperated with von der Leyen’s center-right European People’s Party to run the EU and have endorsed her presidency. The center-left Socialists and Democrats didn’t back a bid by a far-right lawmaker to censure von der Leyen in July — but they vowed “resistance” if her policies kept veering right.

But with at least two more votes of no-confidence on the horizon — and von der Leyen fending off simmering dissent within her own Commission— she offered a range of social policies.

They included a pledge to eliminate poverty by 2050. (According to Eurostat, 2024, 27.5 million Europeans were “severely materially or socially deprived.”) She also included a Quality Jobs Act to “ensure that modern employment keeps pace with modern economy,” and promised housing package to accelerate home construction and renovations, with the aim to ensure no one sleeps on the street by 2030.  

And while this year’s speech continued to downplay green initiatives, von der Leyen did try to merge climate and competition concerns with a plan for small electric vehicle production. The  “e-car,” she said, would be environmentally friendly, affordable and made in Europe ― as the proposal elicited boos from her own EPP.

“I want to work with this House and with all pro-European democratic forces to deliver for Europeans,” said von der Leyen.

Little traction

Von der Leyen appeared at ease, smiling frequently even as she addressed persistent hecklers directly as “this shouting side of the house.”

Yet the debate among leaders from the political groups that followed her speech could not have made her comfortable, revealing little change in the Parliament’s polarized dynamics.

The EU’s strategic autonomy, said S&D leader Iratxe García, was buried “under a golf course,” a knock on the U.S. trade deal that shows the second-biggest group is still far from supporting the measure.

As García and EPP boss Manfred Weber, von der Leyen’s top ally in Parliament, proceeded to trade blows, the leader of the centrist Renew group issued disgust.

“Stability and understanding amongst pro-European forces in this chamber is absolutely vital,” Valérie Hayer told von der Leyen.

“People are watching this at home, and they’re seeing a pathetic spectacle.”

Max Griera and Gabriel Gavin contributed to this article from Strasbourg, Laura Kayali from Paris and Wojciech Kość from Warsaw. Gregorio Sorgi, Carlo Martuscelli, Hanne Cokelaere, Jordyn Dahl, Seb Starcevic and Aitor Hernández-Morales contributed from Brussels.