On
the eve of the presidential election in the United States, our attention might
be taken away from Europe. Little surprise that First Lady Michelle Obama’s
speech that made it to the frontpages worldwide and was already suggested as speech
of the year by
Vital speeches appears in this selection.
But
our focus remains to shine a spotlight on the speeches that matter to Europe :
this month, the best lines are to be found in some of our leaders’ confessions.
They
give us food for thought and share valuable lessons for these difficult times:
‘It is an iron law that those who will be caught up in the great movements determining the course of their times always fail to recognise them in their early stages’, wrote Stefan Zweig in The world of yesterday : memoirs of a European, quoted by President of the European Council Donald Tusk, 20th anniversary of the European Policy Centre, 13 October 2016.
Isabelle
Confessions of a leader
When I gave my first policy statement ten years ago,
as Prime Minister of Poland, I spoke for nearly three hours. One of the
commentators correctly observed that had my speech been as wise as it was long,
it would have been one of the best in Polish history.
Read
the full speech here: Donald Tusk, 20th anniversary of the
European Policy Centre, 13 October 2016
Je laisse maintenant mon discours, que des mains inspirées ont rédigé, mais
en regardant la salle, je crois que je vais vous parler d'une autre façon.
Read
the full speech here: Jean-Claude Juncker, Remise du prix de
l'engagement européen, 6 octobre 2016
I was not originally planning to come to
Strasbourg but I diverted my travel to address you at this crucial time at the
invitation of President Martin Schulz on the importance of Europe’s
ratification of the Paris agreement on climate change.
Watch
the full speech here: Ban Ki-Moon, addressing the European Parliament on Paris agreement on
climate change, 4 October 2016
By awarding
the Sakharov Prize to Nadia Murad and Lamiya Aji Bashar, the European
Parliament asserts its support for freedom of thought as one of the fundamental
human rights, a right which must be respected everywhere, with no exception.
Nadia Murad
and Lamiya Aji Bashar share a painful and tragic story: both of them have had to witness the atrocities committed by the
so-called Islamic State, both of them have seen their closest family killed,
and both of them have been denigrated to sex slaves and exploited.
Their tragic
story does not end there: Nadia Murad and Lamiya Aji Bashar were able to
escape. They were able to escape to Europe and find protection among us. During
their escape, these two young women had to overcome fear, and Lamiya Aji Bashar
was heavily injured. But this did not stop them because they felt that their
duty was to survive to struggle for those they left behind and to engage in
another cause, the fight against impunity.
I cannot put into words the courage and the dignity
they represent.
Read
the full speech here: Martin Schulz, on Awarding the 2016
Sakharov Prize for Freedem of thought, 17 October 2016
I’m going to
get a little serious here, because I think we can all agree that this has been
a rough week in an already rough election (…)
Antithesis and repetitions
Strong men -- men who are truly role models -- don’t
need to put down women to make themselves feel powerful. People who are truly
strong lift others up. People who are truly powerful bring others
together (…)
Breakdown
figures into something the audience can relate to
Fortunately,
New Hampshire, here’s the beauty: We have everything we need to stop this
madness (…) We have knowledge. We have a voice. We have a vote (…)
For anyone who
might be thinking that your one vote doesn’t really matter, or that one person
can’t really make a difference, consider this: Back in 2012, Barack won New
Hampshire by about 40,000 votes, which sounds like a lot. But when you break
that number down, the difference between winning and losing this state was only
66 votes per precinct. Just take that in. If 66 people each
precinct had gone the other way, Barack would have lost.
Call to action
So each of you right here today could help swing an
entire precinct and win this election for Hillary just by getting yourselves,
your families, and your friends and neighbors out to vote. You can do it
right here.
Read
the full speech here: Michelle Obama, Campaign event in
Manchester, New Hampshire, 13 October 2016
Make
it real, make it tangible
The words
uttered by one of the leading campaigners for Brexit and proponents of the
"cake philosophy" was pure illusion: that one can have the EU cake
and eat it too. To all who believe in it, I propose a simple experiment. Buy a
cake, eat it, and see if it is still there on the plate.
The brutal truth is that Brexit will be a loss for all
of us. There will be no cakes on the table. For anyone. There will be only salt
and vinegar.
Read the full speech here: Donald Tusk, 20th anniversary of the European Policy Centre, 13 October 2016
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