Shortly after 10pm on Thursday, Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton (renew) launched a direct attack on Ursula von der Leyen and the EPP in a post on Platform X, pointing out that “the real question now: Is it possible to (again ) entrust the management of Europe to the EPP for another 5 years or 25 years in a row? The EPP itself does not seem to believe in its candidate.”
Thierry Breton “seized” the opportunity given to him by the…numbers and votes received by Ursula von der Leyen at the EPP conference in Bucharest. Of the 737 delegates who had the right to vote (a number that caused confusion with some initially talking about 801 who had the right to vote, which the EPP clarified), 591 had registered to vote. In the end, 499 voted, valid votes were 489 million of which 400 gave the green light to the current President of the Commission and sole candidate Ursula von der Leyen, 89 said no, while 10 were invalid or blank.
Breton’s ambitions
Thierry Breton’s ambitions were never hidden and, after all, he was the one who had given food when he was not negative in his eventual candidacy for the helm of the Commission. “I’m a plan B commissioner. I wasn’t a plan A commissioner, I happen to be a commissioner,” the Frenchman said, when asked if he could see himself as Commission president, at the gala event for the annual POLITICO 28 ranking of people with the most influential in Europe in December 2022.
“All my life, I was told about my next possible job 15 minutes before. To answer your question: I might be able to consider a new Plan B assignment if I am a Plan B” he had pointed out while feeding the scripts.
His nickname in Brussels circles is “Napoleon” because the reputation he wants to follow is that he is the savior of Europe, says a European source.
On Friday morning, however, there was a commotion in Berlemont after the night fires that were lit. However, the position of the European Commission when asked was described as “rather lukewarm”, noted a European source, after limiting himself to answering that he would not comment and that Breton’s position was personal and not related to his role as a commissioner, while the representative of the Commission Verle Nachts he said that the general secretariat will send all commissioners guidelines to be followed during the campaign before the European elections.
The reaction of the EPP
EPP General Secretary Thanasis Bakolas mockingly replied to Thierry Breton not only “thanking” him for his interest in the EPP and Ursula von der Leyen, but at the same time with wishes for the campaign.
“Thank you, Commissioner Breton, for your interest in the EPP and our candidate. I know the liberals are fretting over the upcoming European elections – no insight, no message, no relevance. And I know that things are particularly difficult in France for the Renaissance party, as they are being pressured by the extremes they helped develop by weakening the traditional center-left & center-right. I wish you all the best in the campaign!” pointed out features.
The game is expected to get even tougher in the run-up to June’s European elections, with both sides shooting and ping-ponging with the ultimate goal of Europe’s top posts.
Until now, it is the EPP that has put its candidate Ursula von der Leyen in a fighting position and the socialists, also driven by the Commission and from Luxembourg, Nicolas Schmidt, with sources in the Belgian capital estimating that his choice is probably in favor of the current German president of the Commission he is, since he has so far not managed to stand out in the term that is ending. As for Thierry Breton, the intentions of Emmanuel Macron are currently unknown.
Of course, during the sofagate period when the current president of the European Council, Charles Michel, made a mistake leaving Ursula von der Leyen in Ankara in front of Tayyip Erdoğan, he lost… many feathers which he probably never recovered. So it remains to be seen whether Ursula von der Leyen will prove too tough to knock out despite any strikes above and below the waist.
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