Disgruntled Ursula von der Leyen’s party may win re-election in Europe

In the four years since she became President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen has been praised by Brussels insiders and senior officials around the world. Many say her record – which has brought the European Union much closer to becoming a cohesive United States of Europe – already qualifies her as the best female Commissioner since the famous French politician Jacques Delors three decades ago. Henry Kissinger is 99 years old newly It acknowledged itself as the undisputed leader of Europe, thus providing the European Union with the only telephone number considered by the Secretary of State of the United States Famous (although it may be wrong) Saying that the mass is lacking.

However, there is growing reason to believe that von der Leyen – or VDL, as it is widely referred to in Brussels – may be unable to secure a second term in the job next year. The problem is not any failure of international diplomacy, but rather a matter of domestic politics, or its equivalent in Europe. Critics within her conservative European People’s Party (EPP), which would have to nominate her, deeply resent von der Leyen’s leadership.

The 64-year-old three-time German minister reveals the same political temperament in Brussels that she did as a domestic politician under philanthropist Angela Merkel – one with a steady, if uncharismatic, liberal-mindedness and a stiff stirrup. over opponents, whether in the competing parties or in their own party. But the biggest problem facing the EPP is the core of its work record, which it views as evidence of treachery.

In the four years since she became President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen has been praised by Brussels insiders and senior officials around the world. Many say her record – which has brought the European Union much closer to becoming a cohesive United States of Europe – already qualifies her as the best female Commissioner since the famous French politician Jacques Delors three decades ago. Henry Kissinger is 99 years old newly It acknowledged itself as the undisputed leader of Europe, thus providing the European Union with the only telephone number considered by the Secretary of State of the United States Famous (although it may be wrong) Saying that the mass is lacking.

However, there is growing reason to believe that von der Leyen – or VDL, as it is widely referred to in Brussels – may be unable to secure a second term in the job next year. The problem is not any failure of international diplomacy, but rather a matter of domestic politics, or its equivalent in Europe. Critics within her conservative European People’s Party (EPP), which would have to nominate her, deeply resent von der Leyen’s leadership.

The 64-year-old three-time German minister reveals the same political temperament in Brussels that she did as a domestic politician under philanthropist Angela Merkel – one with a steady, if uncharismatic, liberal-mindedness and a stiff stirrup. over opponents, whether in the competing parties or in their own party. But the biggest problem facing the EPP is the core of its work record, which it views as evidence of treason.

As so often in the history of the European Union, crises have proven instrumental in determining the term of office of the Commission President. In response to the COVID-19 crisis, the VDL has included health ministers in the 27-member bloc of the Buyout vaccines together And not separately. Although the UK beat the bloc to disperse the vaccine by two weeks, EU solidarity enabled a cost-effective and equitable rollout. The vaccination rate in the European Union is higher than that of the United States, and the European Union is by far largest source of vaccines in the world. for developing countries. The VDL then broke the taboo on co-borrowing — a practice discredited by none more than Germany’s Christian Democrats — by incurring more than €700 billion in debt to pay for the pandemic recovery fund. The fund was the largest stimulus package ever funded in Europe and was designed to stimulate the beleaguered economy in ways that would make Europe more digital and greener.

Similarly, the Commission has secured €18 billion in aid to Ukraine this year, in addition to ten rounds of unprecedented sanctions against Russia. The VDL has been a staunch and consistent pro-Ukraine, mustering the loyalty of the bloc, much to the satisfaction of the Biden administration. Moreover, the European Union has opened Europe’s borders to 8,000,000 Ukrainian refugees, bolster shared security, negotiate shared energy supplies, and compromise Northern Ireland with the UK

“This is a moment of massive acceleration in the formation of common policies,” the Spanish daily reported El Pais exclaimed last year. European institutions have rarely been in tune with national dynamics. … Public opinion approves with a high degree (more than 80 percent) of the current EU policy towards Ukraine and the development of a self-sufficient energy policy.

And although the European Green Deal, the European Union’s blueprint to become the first climate-neutral continent by 2050, bears the punchline of Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans, the VDL pushed it hard – to the ire of mainstream conservatives, and not atypical. Her own party is the EPP, the umbrella party of the centre-right in the European Union.

But from the Social Democrats and the Greens she received high praise. “The Commission has made the Green Deal its centerpiece,” said a centre-left member of the European Parliament, who requested anonymity. Foreign Policy. “We couldn’t have imagined this a few years ago. Looking at the composition of Parliament, it’s hard to see how anyone else could do it better,” the member said, referring to Parliament’s leaning to the right of centre.

Under the VDL, the European Union raised its climate target to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55 percent by 2030 by building up renewable energies, reducing energy demand, and phasing out fossil fuels. The European Union has taken advantage of the energy crisis to change course and exceeded the 2030 renewable energy target of 40 percent. Also, since 2020, the long inefficient carbon pricing system is finally packing more bark: a ton price for industry, power generation, and aviation for it quintupleBuilding fuels, freight and transportation will join the emissions trading system in the coming years. The European Union last year agreed to phase out new combustion engines for passenger cars from 2035 onwards. Next is a green industrial plan that aims to match US President Joe Biden’s inflation-lowering law.

It is this strength in climate policy, among other things, that has troubled the most hardline conservatives in the European People’s Party. Key figures, such as European Parliament President Manfred Weber, have lashed out at the VDL and even suggested an alternative candidate for 2024: the European Parliament President. Roberta Metsola, a Maltese lawyer with conservative cultural credentials, including opposition to abortion. (Weber was the main candidate of the European People’s Party in 2019, but was unofficially ousted after the election in favor of the VDL.)

The obvious question uninformed outsiders ask is why this highly intelligent, highly motivated, politically flexible worker (and mother of seven) isn’t popular and celebrated in its ranks? During her career in Germany, her poll numbers were always rock bottom and no one (except perhaps Merkel herself and then only briefly) seriously considered her a candidate for chancellor. Could he really be just too petty, as some are suggesting, because she’s “too perfect”: mom and highly successful careerist, hairstylist always on point, and too well-groomed to a fault?

“For many, she has an annoying demeanor like a babysitter,” explained Miriam Lau, editor-in-chief of the German weekly. Die Zeit. Lau considers the VDL to be one of the most capable and capable center-right politicians in Europe, even if many in her party can’t bring themselves to believe it. But Lau admitted that in the presence of VDL, she double-checks “whether my shoes are properly sanded and my nails are clean and trimmed.”

Brussels insiders such as veteran adviser Nicholas White say there is more to it than that. “She had a reputation for being remote and isolated,” he said. Foreign Policy. Born and raised in Belgium, married since 1986 to fellow doctor Heiko von der Leyen, the daughter of a wealthy German political family (her father was the chief post-war Christian Democrat Ernst Albrecht) lives during the week in a small room just above her office on the 13th floor From the Commission’s headquarters in Berlaymont. Rarely seen in the City, unlike her predecessors, her highly centralized management style with little wiggle room for those not in her tight inner circle, who work on her prize projects.

Regardless of the strange machinations of the EPP, the VDL faces other obstacles for a second term. Of course, the European People’s Party must emerge the strongest party from the election at a time when centre-right conservatives often lose out to the populists. Moreover, the newly elected European Parliament could contain fewer Conservatives, Liberals and Social Democrats – the three groups that secured them a minuscule majority in 2019. In this scenario, a vote by the Greens on their behalf could prove decisive. Also, Germany’s centre-left government would have to nominate her as well.

The stars would have to line up perfectly with the impeccable presenter Europe.