To those who still doubted it, Ursula von der Leyen has just demonstrated that she is a woman of power and that she knows how to skillfully play on power relations. Re-elected by the Twenty-Seven after the European elections of June 9, which confirmed the victory of her political family – the Christian Democrats of the European People’s Party (EPP) – the President of the Commission now intends to establish her authority.
The new team, which will surround him for his second term starting on 1er December at the latest and which she presented on Tuesday, September 17, attests to this. “It feels like we’re witnessing the beginning of the reign of Ursula Jupiter”says Place publique MEP Raphaël Glucksmann. It must be said that the context is favourable to him, if not for a European Union (EU) in full economic decline and faced with two wars on its borders.
Between a France weakened by the political difficulties of Emmanuel Macron and a Germany entangled in the dysfunctions of the coalition led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Ursula von der Leyen has more space. Especially since she is not expected to run for a new mandate in 2029 and therefore no longer needs to secure the support of Paris, Berlin, Rome and the others.
Surrounded by “yes men”
If the European Parliament validates the composition of the next college, there should be very few heavyweights likely to overshadow Ursula von der Leyen. She will be surrounded mainly by “yes men”, sums up the political scientist Alberto Alemanno, while the figures of his first mandate – the Dutchman Frans Timmermans and the Danish Margrethe Vestager – have all left the community ship.
The Frenchman Thierry Breton should certainly have continued, but the former German minister, with whom he has a terrible relationship, made Emmanuel Macron give in: if France wants a major portfolio, she told him in essence, it will be without the former boss of Atos. The Elysée sacrificed Thierry Breton, in favor of the faithful Macronist Stéphane Séjourné, the resigning Minister of Foreign Affairs, who, as Ursula von der Leyen confirmed on Tuesday, will be one of its six executive vice-presidents, in charge of “prosperity and industrial strategy”.
Read the story | Article reserved for our subscribers Thierry Breton’s resignation, conclusion of a stormy relationship with Ursula von der Leyen
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He will have control over the internal market and will oversee four commissioners responsible for trade (the Slovak Maroš Šefčovič), research (the Bulgarian Ekaterina Zaharieva), economic affairs (the Latvian Valdis Dombrovkis) and financial services (the Portuguese Maria Luís Albuquerque). But, as the past has shown, in Brussels, the title is not a guarantee of influence.
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