Many in Germany have been left disappointed by the European Commission presidency of Ursula von der Leyen, the lead candidate for the German Liberal party has said.
Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann — the spitzenkandidat for both the German Free Democratic Party and the continent-wide Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) party — said that many voters had high hopes for the EC head, who was the first woman to head up the organisation.
“Everybody in Germany especially thought she would be much more successful than she ended up being,” Strack Zimmerman remarked.
The Liberal politician highlighted von der Leyen’s previous senior post as Angela Merkel’s defence minister as one of the main reasons for such high expectations, with the EU’s overall poor performance in dealing with the war in Ukraine particularly disappointing.
“I have no idea why, five years ago… she didn’t talk about military security when she started to be the president of the Commission,” the FDP MP said.
When quizzed on whether defence should have been a priority so early in von der Leyen’s presidency — during which there was no active conflict — Strack-Zimmermann claimed that it was not good enough for an EU leader to get distracted by one particular issue.
“The pandemic situation was terrible for everybody,” she acknowledged. “But even then you could see what was happening in Russia.”
The politician added that, for the European Commission leader, it could never be a question of one issue or another, but that such senior politicians need to be able to keep an eye on all issues.
“I think if you are the head of the Commission, there is not one topic — you have to see what happens there and what happens there,” the German politician said, adding that even if war was not a “sexy topic” at the time, it still needed to be addressed.
‼️Does Ursula von der Leyen have a future? @vlbelang MEP @TomVandendriese answers this question
??Full interview: https://t.co/MX8K4sPVNw#useyourvote #UrsulavonderLeyen pic.twitter.com/NOm071p86z
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) May 6, 2024
Strack-Zimmermann also attacked von der Leyen over her decision to release ten billion in EU funding for Hungary after its leader, Viktor Orbán, dropped his formal opposition to a Ukraine funding deal.
Von der Leyen earned consternation for unfreezing the cash after Orbán — apparently at German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s request — conveniently decided to leave the Council room just before the vote on Ukraine funding, allowing the deal to pass “unanimously” without the support of Hungary thanks to a loophole in EU law.
“Everybody was really shocked about it,” she remarked.
“I mean, come on… you paid ten billion for the reason that he went out of the room?”
“It’s really unbelievable,” she concluded.
A leaked recording of an online conversation between high-ranking German generals discussing the possible delivery of Taurus missiles to Ukraine is causing major headaches in Berlin. https://t.co/5kZJNMrDi4
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) March 4, 2024
