Leonid Bershidsky, Columnist

Merkel and Macron Can't Pick the Top EU Jobs Themselves

The fight over who will be the next president of the EU Commission will require a compromise.

May 28, 2019 at 11:50 AM UTC

Leonid Bershidsky, formerly Bloomberg Opinion’s Europe columnist, is a member of the Bloomberg News Automation Team. He recently published Russian translations of George Orwell’s “1984” and Franz Kafka’s “The Trial.”

Apres moi, le deluge.
Photographer: Jasper Juinen/Bloomberg

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The battle for the European Union’s top jobs is getting underway after last week’s parliamentary elections. The fragmented result of that vote will complicate an already tricky process.

The fight has three dimensions: A personality clash among top European leaders, a coalition-building drama in the new parliament, and a tug-of-war between the two EU institutions with the most political legitimacy over which should decide these appointments.