Does she want it or not? Ursula von der Leyen left the question of a possible second term at the head of the EU Commission open for a long time. Now there is an answer four months before the European elections.
The CDU wants to propose Ursula von der Leyen as a candidate for a second term as President of the EU Commission. Von der Leyen was unanimously nominated by the CDU board as the top candidate of the Christian Democratic party family EVP, said party leader Friedrich Merz on Monday after a meeting of the party committee. Shortly before, the 65-year-old had declared during the meeting that she would seek a second term at the head of the Brussels authority. Von der Leyen made it clear that she was looking forward to the joint election campaign, it was said at the meeting.
The position of EU Commission President must be filled after the European elections in June. As a rule, a candidate from the European party family that performs best in the European elections is appointed. The European People’s Party (EPP) is clearly ahead in surveys so far. There is therefore a good chance that von der Leyen can remain president.
As President of the EU Commission, von der Leyen has been in charge of around 32,000 employees since December 1, 2019, who, among other things, make proposals for new EU laws and monitor compliance with the European Treaties. The 65-year-old also sits at the table as an EU representative at almost all major international summits such as the G7 or G20. The US magazine “Forbes” recently named von der Leyen the “most powerful woman in the world”.
“Forbes”: Von der Leyen is the most powerful woman in the world
Von der Leyen’s term in office so far has been shaped primarily by the Corona crisis and the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. During the pandemic, the EU Commission organized, among other things, the joint procurement of vaccines and developed a huge reconstruction program for the economy.
In connection with the war in Ukraine, the authority is now particularly responsible for organizing support for the country attacked by Russia and making proposals for sanctions against Russia. Other important areas of responsibility of the authority include European trade, competition and environmental policy. Von der Leyen is particularly interested in the goal of making the EU the first climate-neutral economic power in the world by 2050.
Before moving to Brussels, von der Leyen was, among other things, Defense Minister under then Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU). The mother of seven children has a doctorate in medicine and has also served as Federal Minister for Family Affairs, Labor Minister and Social Affairs Minister in Lower Saxony.
Even during her first term in office, she was considered the ideal candidate
She was already considered the ideal person for the job at the top of the commission, at least on paper, in 2019. Von der Leyen was born in Brussels in 1958 – the year in which Walter Hallstein became the first and, until von der Leyen, the last German head of the Commission. Von der Leyen’s father, the later Lower Saxony Prime Minister Ernst Albrecht, worked for this commission. The daughter went to the European school – which is why she speaks French and English well.
Von der Leyen’s election as EPP candidate will probably take place on March 7th
The election of the EPP candidate for the top post is scheduled to take place at a party congress on March 7th. It is certain that von der Leyen will receive the necessary majority of votes there. Possible opposing candidates are not yet known. In addition to the German CDU and CSU, the European EVP party family includes, among others, the Austrian ÖVP, the Italian Forza Italia and Spain’s conservative People’s Party PP.
Skeptical MEPs
To this day, it is mainly European MPs who are skeptical about von der Leyen. One reason for this is that the German was nominated for the office by the heads of state and government in 2019, even though she had not previously run as the top candidate in the European elections. In their view, the European Council violated the so-called top candidate system. This stipulates that only the parties’ top candidates should be considered as President of the EU Commission in the European elections.
For the Christian Democrats that was the CSU politician Manfred Weber. Ultimately, however, he was unable to get a majority of the heads of state and government in the European Council to support his election.
It is certain that the traffic light government made up of the SPD, Greens and FDP would not oppose von der Leyen if the Christian Democrats were to become the strongest political force in the EU again in the European elections in June. The reason is, among other things, that otherwise a candidate from another EU country would be selected.
According to information from the German Press Agency, a focus of Ursula von der Leyen’s election campaign will be the competitiveness of the EU. With the current Commission, it recently initiated, among other things, a procedure that could be used to take action against massively subsidized electric cars from China. Von der Leyen also supports the idea of naming a European defense commissioner. If she were to remain Commission President, she would appoint a Defense Commissioner, the German politician said on Saturday at the Munich Security Conference.
