Beware of populism, extremism and Putin's friends.
This is how the German Ursula von der Leyen has launched her electoral offensive to repeat her term as head of the European Commission.
Her political family, the European People's Party (EPP), has chosen her as the main candidate to lead the Community Executive after the European elections in June at a congress in Bucharest in which only 62% of eligible delegates voted. To do it.
“Putin's friends are trying to rewrite our history and hijack our future,” Von der Leyen said in the Romanian capital.
“Our peaceful and united Europe is being disarmed like never before by populists, nationalists and demagogues.
Whether it is the extreme right or the extreme left,” cried the German conservative, who has accused ultra parties such as the Alternative for Germany or the French National Regroupment (RN) of Marine Le Pen of “trampling on European values.”
“They want to destroy our Europe,” she concluded.
Von der Leyen's political family is losing votes to the right, so the German is drawing her own cordon sanitaire.
He cries out against some parties, but leaves a wide margin to agree with other ultra-conservative formations such as the Polish Law and Justice (PiS), the Spanish Eurosceptics of Vox or the ultra Giorgia Meloni (Brothers of Italy), whom Von der Leyen has been courting since who came to power.
The EPP had already led the way for the President of the Commission with a very harsh manifesto against immigration, with far-right overtones and even a certain Eurosceptic tone in which many of these groups see themselves clearly reflected.
Von der Leyen, 65, who has been the president who has accumulated the most power in a European Union marked by the pandemic and Russia's war against Ukraine and its consequences, aspires to repeat her term for another five years in a turbulent time, with threats from the Kremlin and concerns that the community club will be left alone in its support for Kiev if Republican Donald Trump returns to the White House, which is why Von der Leyen has promised more funds for kyiv.
The European elections in June (in Spain they vote on the 9th), from which those who occupy the Union's big positions will emerge, are crucial not only for a community club that is experiencing decisive moments, but also for some of its members, such as France, Germany or Spain.
The German, the first woman in the position, has been accused on many occasions of only having a small team, of living in a bubble and of overshadowing and taking credit for the work of her commissioners.
The polls are clear: the EPP will continue as the first group in the European Parliament, but the Eurosceptic formations will rise a lot in a European Chamber that will be kaleidoscopic and in which reaching an agreement will not be easy.
The polls also give a second position to the Social Democrats, but the liberals and ultra-conservatives of ECR – the group that includes Vox, PiS and Meloni's party – are fighting for third place.
Some within her party have sometimes accused Von der Leyen (of the Christian Democratic Union or CDU) of being too social and of being in good harmony with social democrats, such as the Spanish Pedro Sánchez.
In fact, this Thursday she received 400 votes in favor and 89 against from groups such as The Republicans, who consider her the candidate of the French president, Emmanuel Macron.
Thus, this Thursday the president of the Commission crystallized the turn to the right that she had been undergoing in recent months.
Von der Leyen has assured that she will make policies to advance the EU economies and try to establish less regulation — “this is the Europe that respects tradition and knows that not all decisions should be made at the EU level,” she said. —, strengthen the economy and companies.
Deportation of migrants
He has also promised to take drastic measures against human traffickers whom he has blamed – as he has done lately without addressing the causes of the arrivals – for irregular immigration to the EU.
“It is we, Europeans, who decide who comes to Europe and under what circumstances,” she said.
“We strengthened European borders, and we will continue to do so,” he remarked in Bucharest.
The EPP proposes in its manifesto, in which it speaks of "Christian values", a change in the immigration model to deport asylum seekers to countries outside the EU considered "safe", in a formula similar to the controversial one that Italy has agreed with Albania or even that of the United Kingdom with Rwanda (severely criticized and which had to be modified after a ruling by the Supreme Court).
Von der Leyen began her mandate with the aim of turning the EU into a major geopolitical player.
100 days after assuming command of the Community Executive, the World Health Organization declared the covid-19 pandemic and marked everything.
The German then made her agenda more social.
And as the EU was recovering from the consequences of the pandemic, Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine.
The large-scale war, which has entered its third year and is in one of its most difficult moments, has pushed the EU into an unprecedented transformation to make security and defense a core element of its policies that will be decisive in the next mandate.
Something unthinkable a few years ago.
“We live in new times, in a pre-war era,” said the Polish Prime Minister, the popular Donald Tusk.
All of this occurs while the EU charts the path for the next great enlargement to the east, an initiative that will change the community club forever and that Von der Leyen wants to pilot.
However, in recent months and with her sights set on her campaign, the conservative leader has tried to clear the thorniest issues from the agenda, such as the entry of Ukraine, which has already threatened a couple of times to slow down. .
The German is the favorite to lead the community Executive on a path in which the socialists, for example, have presented a low-profile candidate, the Luxembourger Nicolas Schmit, Commissioner for Employment and Social Rights.
However, everything is not done: first it will be the leaders of the 27 Member States who will designate who they want to preside over the Commission - in 2019, when she had not even presented herself as a candidate, her name arrived by parachute due to the blockade and the difficulty agree about other names.
Afterwards, it will be the European Parliament who confirms the appointment.
Hence, Von der Leyen does not want to close doors.
Although her balance is delicate because the socialists have warned that they will not tolerate anyone who supports the extreme right.
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