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On the hunt for best April Fools' Day stories across Europe
By the way, given how heavy the news cycle tends to be these days, we need to grasp every opportunity to look for something positive, so let’s celebrate the April Fools’ Day today.
Send me your best April Fools’ Day stories from across Europe for a post later this afternoon – I’m on [email protected].
Speaking after Costa, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen focused on the US tariffs, set to kick in tomorrow, as she said the bloc had a “strong plan” to retaliate “if necessary”.
“Let me be clear, Europe did not start this confrontation. We think it is wrong, but my message to you today is that we have everything we need to protect our people and our prosperity,” she told lawmakers.
She argued:
“Of course, there are severe issues in the world of trade, without any question: over capacities, we know about the imbalances, we see unfair subsidies, denial of market access, or the IP theft. And I hear Americans when they say some others have taken advantage of the rules. I agree.
We also suffer from it, so let’s work on it.
But tariffs, across the board, make things work worse, not better.”
Using Trump’s favourite phrase, she insisted Europe “holds a lot of cards” and would come to negotiations from a position of strength.
“We do not necessarily want to retaliate, but if it is necessary, we have a strong plan to retaliate, and we will use it,” she said, adding the EU would “assess … the announcements very carefully to calibrate our response.”
Her language reminded me of this instant classic (video) by commission spokesperson Olof Gill, who delivered this wonderful line last week:
“Look, we have to be strategic about our response here. And I repeat: we do not want to have to respond.
But at the risk of sounding like my three-year-old son: they started it.”
Over in Strasbourg, European Council president António Costa has been giving his verdict on the recent EU summit on Ukraine and defence.
He said the decisions taken constituted “a turning point in moving forward towards a strong and more sovereign Europe,” as he insisted that leaders “now need to continue to move with a sense of urgency to complete this work, and if necessary, take further decisions to ensure a just and lasting peace in Ukraine.”.
Costa also spoke of the leaders’ determination to “take action to close our innovation gap, to close our productivity gap, to cut on red tape, [and] to renew European Union’s promise of shared prosperity.”
Italian prime minister Meloni says 'no one who believes in democracy' can be happy about court's decision to ban Le Pen from 2027 race
Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni has just weighed in on Marine Le Pen saying in a social media post that “no one who truly believes in democracy can rejoice over a sentence that strikes the leader of a major party down, depriving millions of citizens of their representation.”
She said something similar to the Il Messaggero newspaper last night, caveating that by adding she didn’t know the details of the case.
Jakub Krupa
Elsewhere today, I will also be following:
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updates on Ukraine;
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the European Parliament’s plenary session in Strasbourg, which includes debates on the recent EU summit, Ukraine and US tariffs, and could see some news on Radio Free Europe;
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The EU is set to present its strategy on tackling hybrid threats to the bloc;
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Poland, Sweden and Britain are set to launch a new air policing operation as part of Nato;
and, no doubt, many others.
Never a slow news day these days.
Morning opening: This is not the end
Jakub Krupa
Despite the Paris court’s unambigous decision to ban Marine Le Pen from running for public office for five years, effective immediately, it is increasingly clear that this is not the end of this story.
Speaking on TF1 last night, Le Pen said she would “pursue whatever legal avenues” she could to prevent herself from being “eliminated”. “I’m not going to submit to a denial of democracy this easily,” she said.
Le Pen, who was not found to have benefited personally from the embezzlement, insisted she had done nothing wrong. “I am going to appeal because I am innocent,” she said.
Overnight, US president Donald Trump joined a growing list of populist and far-right leaders – including Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, Italy’s Matteo Salvini, and the Netherlands’ Geert Wilders – offering their support to Le Pen, saying it was “a very big deal.”
“I know all about it, and a lot of people thought she wasn’t going to be convicted of anything,” he said.
Elon Musk, Tesla’s billionaire owner, who has backed the far right in Germany and plays a major role in Trump’s administration, said the sentence against Le Pen would “backfire, like the legal attacks against president Trump”.
And this morning, Le Pen’s close party ally and potential presidential candidate if she remains banned, National Rally president Jordan Bardella continued in the same vein, loyally declaring his continuing support for Le Pen.
Appearing on Europe1, he said the French should be “outraged” by the decision, and he said the party would organise demonstrations and leafleting actions against the decision on the weekend.
He said the decision was “disproportionate” and claimed the party’s right to a fair trial was violated as “judges have decided to purely and simply eliminate the candidate of the National Rally from the presidential race,” according to quotes carried in the French media.
First polls asking the French what they make of the decision show they are deeply divided in their opinion.
An Elabe poll for BFMTV showed that the plurality of 42% said they were satisfied with the decision, with 29% against, and 29% expressing no strong views on the matter.
Asked more directly about their view of the legal process, 57% said it was normal, while 42% sided with the NR’s narrative that it was a blatant move to eliminate Le Pen from the 2027 race.
57% of voters also pointed to Bardella as the heir apparent to Le Pen, with as many as 87% of the NR’s voters backing his candidacy as the best available alternative.
For what it’s worth, he said he wouldn’t even entertain that scenario until all avenues for challenging the ban have been exhausted.
This story is not going away and we will bring you all the updates along the way, as usual – alongside all other big stories of the day across Europe.
It’s Tuesday, 1 April 2025, and this is Europe live. It’s Jakub Krupa here.
Good morning.
