Ursula von der Leyen's campaign for re-election to the European Commission presidency, following the European elections scheduled for June 6 to 9, has barely begun, yet she has already come under fire. With less than two months to go before the election, the right-wing European People's Party (EPP) candidate for the helm of the EU executive body has faced attacks on a growing number of fronts – not to mention the risks that go with them.
This week, she will have to answer to some of her Commissioners and a section of the European Parliament, who have criticized her for appointing German MEP Markus Pieper as the EU's "SME envoy," even though he was the lowest-rated candidate for this newly created and highly paid position. They saw this choice as a gift given to the EPP; and, more specifically, to the German Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party; from which both Pieper and von der Leyen, Angela Merkel's former minister, hail.
Four commissioners – one liberal, France's Thierry Breton (in charge of the internal market); and three socialists, Spain's Josep Borrell (High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy), Luxembourg's Nicolas Schmit (Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights) and Italy's Paolo Gentiloni (Commissioner for Economy) – wrote to von der Leyen on March 27 to ask for explanations, and they put the subject on the table at the Wednesday, April 10 meeting of the College of Commissioners. Pieper's appointment has raised "questions about the transparency and impartiality of the nomination process," they said in their letter.
In the European Parliament, an amendment calling on the Commission president to "rectify the situation by rescinding" this appointment will be discussed on Thursday, April 11. "The EPP is contesting its legal validity, and von der Leyen's cabinet is working hard to have it withdrawn," said Greens MEP Daniel Freund. In an April 5 letter to the College of Commissioners, several NGOs, including Transparency International, The Good Lobby and Corporate Europe Observatory, expressed their concern that, in appointing Pieper, von der Leyen had "favored her political ally for one of the Commission’s senior civil service posts."
Von der Leyen is also implicated in another affair, "Pfizergate," which she triggered herself. When questioned by The New York Times in April 2021 about the Commission's contracts to purchase Covid-19 vaccines from Pfizer, she boasted that she had negotiated directly with the pharmaceutical company's chief executive via SMS. However, when asked to publish these message exchanges in the name of transparency, she refused, claiming to have deleted them from her phone.
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