French President Emmanuel Macron has warned of a "political crisis" following the failure of France's candidate for the EU Commission. Both the new Commission and the European Parliament are confronted with one, said Macron in Paris.
One should not allow this crisis to deepen further. "I think it's important to have a strong commission that can carry out ambitious projects," said Macron. One must now come out of the current tensions.
The European Parliament had recently rejected the former French Defense Minister Sylvie Goulard as a candidate for the new European Commission. To the fate of Goulard were, among other things, ongoing investigations into a pseudo-employment affair. They had already led in 2017 to their resignation as Minister of Defense.
Macron immediately after the failure, the future Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was responsible for the debacle. (Read more about this here.)
Macron said that Leyen himself insisted on Goulard, who knew her from her days as Secretary of Defense, and assured him of parliamentary approval.