Confirmed as Leading Candidate at the European Parliament Congress
Received 81.8% Unanimous Support at the Congress
Ursula von der Leyen, the first female head of the European Union (EU) executive branch, has received a green light for her reappointment.
On the 7th (local time), von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, was confirmed as the 'Spitzenkandidat' (lead candidate) at the European People's Party (EPP) congress, a center-right political group in the European Parliament, held in Bucharest, the capital of Romania. Following her selection last month as the candidate from Germany's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), a member of the EPP, she was finally chosen as the EPP lead candidate to lead the European Parliament election campaign this June.
Recommended as the sole candidate that day, she received 400 votes (81.8%) out of 489 valid votes in the congress vote. In particular, since the next EU Commission President is likely to be the lead candidate of the political group that wins the most votes in the European Parliament election, von der Leyen's chances of reappointment have significantly increased barring any major variables.
Von der Leyen, who served as Germany's Minister of Defense during Chancellor Angela Merkel's administration, took office as Commission President for a five-year term on November 1, 2019. From the beginning of her term, she prioritized responding to the climate crisis. The Green Deal, a legislative package for the current Commission's green industrial transition, is a representative example.
The 'von der Leyen second term' is expected to focus more on defense policy. This is due to the prolonged support for the war in Ukraine, which has depleted weapons across European countries, as well as concerns within Europe about internal conflicts in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) stemming from the possibility of Donald Trump's re-election as U.S. President.
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