Merkel and Macron Carried Off Their Trick, Barely

Ursula von der Leyen has clinched the presidency of the European Commission with a razor-thin margin of nine votes. It's a win for the national governments that backed her, a loss for the European Parliament that dreamed of putting forward one of its own — and a sign of some very tough tussles ahead for the 28-member bloc.

When pulling a rabbit out of a hat, it helps to not show the audience the secret compartment underneath. The nomination earlier this month of von der Leyen, the former defense minister of Germany, to the helm of the European Union's executive arm, involved very little magic. As a compromise pick intended to settle differences between Germany's Angela Merkel and France's Emmanuel Macron, she was ideal. But for the new European Parliament, which had fielded better-known candidates who actually campaigned for the job, she was a mean trick.