Ursula von der Leyen is not very bright, not very likeable, and not very honest. In other words, she’s perfect for another term as the European Commission president. From Martin Jay at strategic-culture.su:
Ursula von der Leyen wants to have a second term as European Commission president and she has the political support from the European parliament’s most powerful pan-European conservative bloc to get it. But can Europe, indeed the world, put up with this German’s narrow view of Europe’s role in a new multipolar world order when, in so many respects, she is like a twin of Joe Biden – stuck in the 1980s with their views about America running everything and naturally hating Russia and blaming Putin for almost everything which she can get away with.
Her second term bid is not unprecedented as José Manuel Barroso went for two terms, plagued by some rumours that he did it to avoid a paedophile investigation in Portugal soiling his political legacy. And so the EU will not be breaking new ground here. But the system of electing a European Commission president – member states each present their own candidate which is ultimately voted in by MEPs – might have other ideas for Ursula who also will look at the extended term as a way of avoiding awkward graft prosecutions which are inevitably going to arise when she leaves office. Her murky relationship with Pfizer, which sold the EU billions of dollars of vaccines under her watch, while the whole affair was shrouded in secrecy – only to reveal that her husband was working for a biotech company which, strangely, received millions of euros in grants and might be connected to Pfizer – might catch up with her. Presently, and it should come as no surprise, the EU’s own internal watchdogs and anti-fraud units have only carried out the symbolic proceedings to probe her relationship with Pfizer and have found no graft or conflict of interest. But it is the New York Times which is suing her for pretending to no longer have critical text messages to Pfizer bosses about the vaccine deal, which still hangs in the air like a bad smell.
It’s not only graft which might raise its head when MEPs cross-examine her in the parliament as part of one of their first important tasks in the late summer of this year. It’s also the fact that many MEPs simply don’t like her and don’t trust her and, given that we can assume more far right MEPs joining the parliament, this number might be considerable – leading to her being a runner but not succeeding in getting the second term. Many MEPs from the present term simply don’t like how she bungled most of the crises which hit her, almost from day one in the job and have left the EU with not only a constellation of new problems – immigration being a key one – but also spiralling debts. Of course, “Ursula” as Joe Biden calls her, has the answer for this last mess. Increase the EU budget, she simply states as her opening speech at the Munich Security Conference.
Pingback: Oh Ursula! Not Another Five Years, Please! By Martin Jay — Der Friedensstifter