October 22, 2025: Sánchez-Merz unity vow tested; Trump-Putin off; Selmayr return; Várhelyi spy probe; UK inflation up; France budget fails
Description
Today's October 2025 and the European agenda opens with a moment of diplomatic potential, as the recent meeting between Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz led to a commitment to collaboration between the S&D and EPP groups in the European Parliament.
However, this fragile political thaw is immediately tested by persistent internal dissent, with both EPP leader Manfred Weber and S&D leader Iratxe García struggling to maintain order among their increasingly unruly national delegations.
Adding to the intense institutional friction, Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi is facing renewed scrutiny and a grilling by EU lawmakers today following grave allegations that Hungarian intelligence officers attempted to recruit EU officials as spies between 2012 and 2018.
This crisis of trust is compounded by the unsettling prospect of Martin Selmayr, the "Monster of the Berlaymont," ending his years of effective exile to seek a senior post in the EU’s foreign service, a move officials fear is the return of the "Count of Monte Cristo, coming back to have his revenge".
Meanwhile, the international focus shifts dramatically as the highly anticipated second summit between Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin is now definitively off, having swiftly collapsed after Moscow refused to back away from its maximalist demands on Ukraine.
As EU leaders converge for high-stakes meetings on the Gaza ceasefire and Western Balkans enlargement, national capitals are fighting critical domestic fires.
In London, Chancellor Rachel Reeves faces a major headache as CPI inflation hit 3.8% in the year to September, a figure that dictates a significant rise in benefit payments, including a 4.8% increase for the state pension.
This economic pressure mounts alongside intense political turbulence, including a reported £2 billion tax raid plan and "hair-raisingly vicious briefing" against Cabinet Secretary Chris Wormald, with whispers suggesting he could be ousted as early as January.
Simultaneously, Paris is reeling from deep internal fractures: the revenue section of the draft finance law is expected to be rejected by the Finance Commission today, leading La France Insoumise (LFI) to plan a new motion of censure for early December aimed at blocking the government from using executive ordinances.
This national gridlock is mirrored on the right, as Les Républicains President Bruno Retailleau has intensified the party's civil war, declaring that the six LR ministers who remained in government "no longer belong to LR".
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