Von der Leyen warms up for a second term at the head of the European Commission

Ursula von der Leyen, the first woman to head the European Commission, is gearing up to seek a second term.

The politician who has commanded the Brussels machinery with a very personalist role in a European Union with turbulence - with a pandemic and a war on the continent - will transfer this Monday to her party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), in Berlin, her interest in repeating as head of the community Executive and plans to ask for support for her candidacy, according to sources close to the political party.

The 65-year-old German conservative, who is going through a complicated end to her term and has had to abandon some of her star green policies due to pressure from the right and fear of the rise of populism, is the best placed within her family. political party, the European People's Party, which must make its candidacy official at a congress in March.

If the EPP is the most voted force, Von der Leyen has very good cards to return to command the European Commission.

The German company is in tune with the governments of the member states.

In the summer, President Pedro Sánchez commented that if the position remains in the hands of the right after the European elections in June, he would support Von der Leyen.

Although the European Parliament would have to confirm it.

In 2019, when the leaders proposed his candidacy in a surprise manner and it was submitted to the vote of the European Parliament, he had a hard time.

If she runs as the candidate of the European Popular Party, the possible rivals that have emerged so far—the Luxembourg commissioner Nicolas Schmit (of the Socialists and Democrats) or Bas Eickhout (of the Greens, Netherlands)—cannot overshadow her.

Von der Leyen has had problems within her European family and with the president of the EPP, the also German Manfred Weber, who aspired to preside over the Commission that she has commanded.

But the movement of Christian Democrat politics leaves the EPP with little or no leeway except to support her and anoint her as a candidate.

Although the popular Europeans name her at their March congress in Bucharest as their

pitzenkandidat

(a term in German that can be translated as head of the list), Von der Leyen also wants to show herself not only as the conservative candidate, but also as a consensus person.

Criticism for excessive prominence

Von der Leyen has sometimes been widely criticized for being too much of a protagonist, overshadowing her commissioners and monopolizing the initiatives and achievements of the community Executive.

In recent weeks, she has been outlining the roadmap for the next Commission.

She wants, for example, a new Defense Commissioner, as she launched on Saturday at the Munich Security Conference.

And she has even pointed out that it should be in the hands of an Eastern country - the current Polish Foreign Minister, Radosław Sikorski, already sounds -, although Defense powers are in the hands of the Member States.

In September, in her State of the Union speech, the German conservative, who has been deeply involved in making Ukraine a candidate country, also showed signs of wanting to command the next great enlargement to the east.

Von der Leyen, a doctor, mother of seven children and who likes to remember that she was born in Brussels, arrived at the head of the European Commission on December 1, 2019. Just 101 days later, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a pandemic. due to the covid-19 that shook the world and that has marked his management.

It was difficult for the community Executive to get started, but it ended up taking historic steps in the joint production and purchase of vaccines.

In addition, the recovery fund was created, with 750,000 million euros, to help Member States get out of the hole, proposed by Spain and supported by France and Germany.

Two years ago, when the world seemed to emerge from the pandemic and its consequences, Russian President Vladimir Putin launched full-scale war on Ukraine.

And support for kyiv and response to the invasion have marked his tenure.

The EU once again took historic steps with financing weapons for Ukraine.

Many voices saw the mandate of the German – who was Minister of Family and then of Defense under Angela Merkel – as one of the most successful in the history of the European Commission.

But in the last part of the legislature the curves have multiplied.

Her controversial trip to Israel following the Hamas attacks of October 7, in which she showed her support for the Netanyahu government as it launched the siege on Gaza in response to those attacks, upset a majority of member states.

Some because the president of the Commission does not have powers in foreign policy;

others, because that trip multiplied accusations against the EU from the global south of maintaining double standards and of not caring about Palestinian civilians.

In recent weeks, it is environmentalists who criticize Von der Leyen for losing ground in her green deal policy.

The head of the Community Executive has announced, for example, that she is putting on hold for now the law that reduces pesticides, after the mobilizations of farmers and criticism from the right, which fears the rise of populism and ultra parties that have put the environmental policies on target.

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