Ursula von der Leyen tightens grip before unveiling her team

BRUSSELS — Ursula von der Leyen has a message for her top team: Defy me at your peril.

When outspoken French Commissioner Thierry Breton resigned from the European Commission with immediate effect, he publicly condemned his (now-former) boss for her “questionable governance.” In a letter posted on social media, he accused von der Leyen of going behind his back to French President Emmanuel Macron to have him replaced. 

Breton openly criticized the Commission chief’s failings for months by accusing her of favoritism, questioning her lack of support within her own political family, and attacking her for campaigning while also being European Commission president. 

In response, von der Leyen booted him out before the start of her second term as Commission President.

“It’s a huge deal. This is a good old power play,” said one senior official from von der Leyen’s own center-right European People’s Party. The official, like others quoted in this piece, was granted anonymity to speak candidly about a tense and ever-evolving situation. 

Von der Leyen, who has helmed the influential European institution since 2019, has developed a reputation for a top-down approach with a penchant for centralized power among a small group of trusted advisers. Getting rid of one of her staunchest critics from one of the most powerful countries in the bloc is an unequivocal power move to cement von der Leyen as a power player on the global stage, EU officials told POLITICO.

Breton — well known for his public spats with Elon Musk, interest in boosting European defense, and key role in von der Leyen’s Covid response — is not the first European Union official to take on the Commission president, and lose. Of the handful of commissioners who were the toughest on von der Leyen, there are none left. 

In April, the now-former French commissioner for EU’s single market and industrial policy was one of a handful of Commissioners who took down von der Leyen’s handpicked special envoy for small- and medium-sized enterprises, Markus Pieper.

That group included the bloc’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell along with Breton and fellow commissioners Nicolas Schmit and Paolo Gentiloni, who wrote to von der Leyen expressing their concerns about the appointment. The appointment “triggered questions about the transparency and impartiality of the process,” they said. 

None of those four will return to their roles during von der Leyen’s second term. Borrell, Gentiloni and Schmit were not put forward by their national governments for another five year term and Breton resigned.

Others who left to pursue other powerful roles butted heads with von der Leyen before they left.

One was Frans Timmermans, the socialist who was in charge of the European Commission’s climate policy and pushed hard to deliver on the EU’s new climate goals, but was met with resistance from von der Leyen’s European People’s Party. He quit in 2023 to make an unsuccessful bid for Dutch prime minister.

The Commission president can now gear up to roll out her team for her second stint on Tuesday morning in Strasbourg to the European Parliament, comfortable in the knowledge her critics are out of the door — on balance, a benefit worth any short-term delays or chaotic appearances. 

“It’s a win-win” for von der Leyen, said one EU official, who stressed that the most recent departure of her latest antagonist will resolve a major headache for her in the next five years. 

A trade-off for France

Some detractors, like Breton, think her series of power moves will come back to haunt her second term.

A European Commission spokesperson refused to get drawn into comments on Breton’s letter and his criticism on Monday, saying that “the president is fully focused on the future, on having a new college operational as quickly as possible to fulfill her duty as president in the next mandate.”

Von der Leyen ousted Breton from Brussels seemingly without alienating Macron too much, political insiders said.

The French president is weakened domestically after his electoral defeat in June’s European election, which saw a surge in far-right support and led to the French president’s call for a snap election. 

In exchange, officials said France is set to get more substantial oversight within the Commission than what was promised to Breton. The now-former commissioner was down for a relatively weak portfolio of Industry and Strategic Autonomy without managing all of the linked civil servants, two officials briefed on the discussions said. 

Hours after Breton’s immediate resignation, France put forward outgoing Minister of Foreign Affairs Stéphane Séjourné, avoiding another potential delay for the announcement of how von der Leyen will divvy up the top jobs in the next five years.

Due to France’s political clout and influence, historically, it nearly always receives a powerful role in the Commission.  

One French MEP from Macron’s camp said von der Leyen “blackmailed France,” taking advantage of the fact that “France is weakened by the current political situation.”

Damage already done

Still, the European Commission’s 26 commissioners, one from each country, seem a long way away from settling into their offices in the Berlaymont. 

First, von der Leyen’s plan to have a gender-balanced team stalled, forcing her to go back to the capitals to replace male nominees with female candidates in Romania and Slovenia, well after a Aug. 31 deadline. And amid the drama with France, Slovenia’s parliament has yet to approve its new nominee, Marta Kos.

While von der Leyen has shirked her own deadlines, she remains insistent the Commission will have a punctual start date of Nov. 1. 

However, the feasibility of this is unclear, as future commissioners still have to face a grilling by the European Parliament and consensus in Brussels leaning towards a Dec. 1 launch.

It’s a political tightrope for von der Leyen, said Sophia Russack, a researcher at the Centre for European Policy Studies. 

On one hand, she put her foot down on gender “while not stepping on member states’ governments feet too much, as she still has to work with those governments in the next mandate, and she will not want to [jeopardize] (so far largely) good working relationships.”

But it may be too late.

Bernd Lange, a veteran socialist European lawmaker in the European Parliament, said the start of the new Commission is “slowly degenerating into absurd theatre. A lot of damage is already being done.” 

Russack attributes the current chaos to von der Leyen’s attempt to have member countries bend to her will. And that ongoing power play has frustrated EU diplomats and officials.

“She is damaging Europe at record speed,” said one EU diplomat, who thinks von der Leyen has dug a hole for herself that is only getting deeper and deeper. 

“We should avoid further delays, as all policy matters seem now to be in a state of paralysis. Problems and challenges don’t wait,” said one senior EU diplomat.

The new Commission will indeed have a loaded in-tray, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine shows no signs of ending, a widening war in the Middle East and a U.S. election in less than two months. 

On top of that, the EU is juggling a cost of living crisis and a housing crisis, finding its footing against an ever-competitive China and struggling to reorient itself around a surge in far-right popularity in authoritative countries such as Germany and France. 

“We also need to debate the single market and competitiveness,” the diplomat said. “In five years, no one will care about who will be which commissioner if the European economy goes to the drain.”

Jacopo Barigazzi, Camille Gijs and Eddy Wax contributed reporting from Brussels. Giorgio Leali contributed reporting from Paris.