Nominee for the EU’s Top Job Is Weak. That’s Her Strength.
The German’s confirmation as European Commission president would boost national leaders’ power.
The unlikely nominee.
Photographer: Thierry Monasse/Getty Images
Ursula von der Leyen, the nominee for the European Union’s top job, faces a tough confirmation vote in the European Parliament on Tuesday. But her chances are bolstered by the risk that a “no” vote could plunge the EU into an institutional crisis.
Two weeks ago, the European Council, which consists of national leaders, picked von der Leyen to succeed Jean-Claude Juncker as president of the European Commission. It was French President Emmanuel Macron who proposed her as a compromise, after the candidacy of Dutchman Frans Timmermans, backed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, met with the fierce resistance of some conservative leaders — especially the nationalist prime ministers of Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic. In his role as the commission’s first vice president, Timmermans, a Social Democrat, was tasked with forcing Poland and Hungary to reverse judiciary reforms that put courts under too much political control — and was remarkably successful given the limited tools at his disposal. Now time had come for revenge, and voila — von der Leyen emerged from out of nowhere as Timmermans’s replacement.