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European centrists reaffirm their support for Ukraine and are working on seizing Russian assets

by AI | 24.Mar 2025 | Europe in brief AI

Seizure of Russian assets, Ukraine’s accession to the EU, increase in military spending in Europe: a “summit for democracy and freedoms” bringing together about sixty centrist European leaders was held Monday in Paris, at the initiative of former Prime Minister Gabriel Attal.

The German MEP and president of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), Svenja Hahn, delivers a speech alongside Gabriel Attal (left), Valérie Hayer (right), and Sandro Gozi (right), at the closing of the Summit for Democracy and Freedoms, attended by leaders and members of European centrist parties, in Paris, on March 24, 2025. (Photo: Ludovic MARIN / AFP)

Paris – The former French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, currently the Secretary General of the Renaissance Party, and the President of the Renew group in the European Parliament, Valérie Hayer, gathered centrist leaders representing 21 countries in Paris.

Present were notably German MEP Svenja Hahn, President of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Europe (ALDE), Secretary General of the European Democratic Party (PDE) Sandro Gozi, former Bulgarian Prime Minister Nicolaï Denkof, former Belgian Prime Minister Sophie Wilmès, and President of the Polish Parliament Szymon Holownia.

This summit is “a giant step towards a true alliance of liberal democracies and especially of the parties that defend them,” declared Gabriel Attal during a press conference.

Faced with the “reactionary steamroller that challenges our values today,” “we must accomplish something difficult, even unprecedented for many liberal democracies: to assert our own power” and “write our own destiny without depending on others,” he continued. (March 24, 2025)