Instead of applause, there was barking. Astonishment after von der Leyen’s speech

Ursula von der Leyen gave a lofty speech at the European Parliament in Strasbourg. At the end, she shouted “Long live Europe!”, to which the hall responded with a storm of applause. When the ovation died down, it turned out that one of those present decided to mark his presence in a different way. There was barking in the hall.

The dog commented on von der Leyen’s speech

The sound of barking clearly surprised MEPs, to which the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, reacted. With a smile on her face, she explained that there was probably a guide dog in the room who had decided to join in the applause in his own way.

The situation was so funny that von der Leyen’s speech was listened to by, among others, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, nicknamed “Sanchez the dog” in the country. The politician responded to the barking with a smile, and one of the Spanish MEPs, Eider Gardiazabal Rubial, joked that the dog assessed the speech of the head of the European Commission in this way.

Rebellious Orban

However, humorous moments were rare last week. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban left the EU summit because he did not like, among other things, EU decision to start the accession process with Moldova and Ukraine. The politician was a vocal critic of this decision and opposed granting Ukraine another tranche of financial aid.

Hungary was the only one of the 27 European Union countries that did not agree to support Ukraine, which is fighting against its powerful neighbor. All European capitals voted in favor of providing EUR 50 billion. Only Budapest broke away from the European community and blocked this idea on the night from Thursday to Friday, December 15.