EU capitals fume at ‘Queen’ von der Leyen

“She has increasingly been behaving like a queen,” said one EU diplomat | Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images

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BRUSSELS — For many of her international allies, Ursula von der Leyen is Mrs. Europe — a truly presidential figure who steered the bloc through the COVID-19 pandemic and kept it unified in the face of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

But the German politician’s glowing reputation abroad is increasingly belied by a malaise within the central institutions and capitals of the 27-country European Union.

In private conversations in Brussels, diplomats, lawmakers and her own European Commission, staffers complain “VDL” is overstepping her job description, cutting EU governments out of her decision-making and ruling with a small group of advisers by decree.

The criticism came to a head last weekend when she made an unscheduled trip to Israel, prompting a furious reaction from European diplomats.

Several told POLITICO they were unhappy that von der Leyen, who voiced solidarity with the victims of the Hamas attacks, had not relayed their calls for Israel to respect international law in Gaza during her trip.

The EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, even dared to issue a rare public rebuke of his boss. Von der Leyen, he said, is not entitled to represent EU views on foreign policy, which are normally coordinated between member countries.

“The official position of the European Union with any foreign policy [issue] is being fixed — I repeat — by the guidelines,” Borrell told journalists in Beijing on Saturday. Foreign policy is decided by the leaders of the EU’s 27 countries at international summits, and discussed by foreign ministers in meetings “chaired by me,” he added.

Nathalie Loiseau, a European lawmaker and senior member of French President Emmanuel Macron’s Renew Europe group, echoed the criticism in a post on X. “I don’t understand what the president of the Commission has to do with foreign policy, which is not her mandate,” she said.

“She has increasingly been behaving like a queen,” said one EU diplomat who was granted anonymity to speak frankly.

The Israel trip episode is just one in a lengthening list of examples where von der Leyen has failed to consult EU capitals properly before making an important policy decision, or has blindsided one of her own team of top commissioners.

Critics also point to her trip to Tunisia in July, when she oversaw a deal to give President Kais Saied more than €1 billion to help manage irregular migration, and her announcement of an investigation into Chinese subsidies for electric vehicles as other big moments when she failed to keep member states on board.

The risk for von der Leyen is that the frustration, which has so far been largely contained to Brussels staffers chafing at her management style and diplomats grumbling in private, boils over into something bigger. A rebellion from EU capitals could endanger her potential bid for a second term as Commission president after the European Parliament elections next June.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and French president Emmanuel Macron in Paris | Teresa Suarez/EFE via EPA

“This is a problem that needs to be fixed,” said a second EU diplomat. “The next term will be about implementing decisions, while the first was about announcing them.”

Von der Leyen has yet to announce whether she will seek another five-year term in the Berlaymont, the Brussels building where the Commission is housed. But the leaders of her conservative political group, the European People’s Party, have already said they would back her if she decides to run again.

While so far no leader has explicitly threatened to withdraw support from von der Leyen, frustration among her critics — particularly socialist heavyweights like Borrell and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez — could spell trouble if she is seeking unanimous backing for a second term.

Sometimes a crisis means leaders have to act fast. According to a person with direct knowledge of the trip and its preparations, von der Leyen’s decision to go to Israel was made at the last minute on Thursday after attempts to set up a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Von der Leyen decided to travel with European Parliament President Roberta Metsola, who had previously arranged her own visit. The two toured an Israeli community decimated by Hamas gunmen, and had to briefly take refuge in a bomb shelter when an air raid alert interrupted their meeting with Israeli President Isaac Herzog.

Asked about the criticism of her trip on Monday, the Commission’s chief spokesperson Eric Mamer said von der Leyen was merely representing the Commission, not the position of the 27 EU member countries.

“No one criticized von der Leyen for going to Ukraine and Bucha [the Ukrainian town where a massacre took place],” Mamer told journalists. “She can travel wherever she wants. She went to Israel to express solidarity with a country that had been subject of unprovoked terrorist attack. That’s within her prerogative.”

But von der Leyen’s leadership in response to the Ukraine war has not pleased everyone.

“We saw the same thing with the sanctions announcements, or on most Ukraine-related issues: She doesn’t discuss this with a lot of people, she just decides,” said a Commission official granted anonymity to discuss internal matters.

The official continued: “She has grabbed the power in the pandemic and she has [clung] to it. Nobody is really disputing it, also because her track record is very positive. The downside of it is that some things stay undecided for a very long time.”

Von der Leyen, who famously lives on the 13th floor of the Berlaymont when she is in Brussels, relies on an extremely tight-knit group of aides. She uses her main political adviser, Bjoern Seibert, as her key conduit for issuing decisions to the rest of the Commission.

She rarely consults within the team of 27 EU commissioners that she leads, compared to her predecessor in the job, Jean-Claude Juncker, according to several Brussels officials who were granted anonymity to discuss sensitive internal matters.

Von der Leyen decided to travel to Israel with European Parliament President Roberta Metsola | Emmanuel Dunand/AFP via Getty Images

But Seibert is overstretched, and that can lead to consultations being skipped, said a senior political operative who was granted anonymity to speak candidly.

“Bjoern cannot do everything and von der Leyen needs to understand this,” the operative said. “You need to have eyes and fail-safes and people who take responsibility when things get tough. Every word counts and every move counts.”