Michel
Barnier slams ‘authoritarian drift’ in Brussels under Ursula von der Leyen
The former
French prime minister feels the Commission president sidelined him in the
endgame of Brexit negotiations.
Michel
Barnier is accusing his former boss Ursula von der Leyen of overseeing an
"authoritarian drift." |
June 4, 2025
4:01 am CET
By Clea
Caulcutt, Nicholas Vinocur and Nicolas Barré
https://www.politico.eu/article/michel-barnier-authoritarian-drift-ursula-von-der-leyen-france-eu/
PARIS — The
European Union’s former chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier is accusing his
former boss Ursula von der Leyen of overseeing an “authoritarian drift” during
her tenure leading the European Commission.
In a new
tell-all book out Wednesday chronicling his time in Brussels and brief stint as
France’s prime minister, the 74-year-old said the drift “has increased a notch
in the last six years with Ursula von der Leyen, who wants to decide
everything.”
Speaking to
POLITICO before the book’s release, Barnier said that under von der Leyen,
commissioners increasingly behaved like “super technocrats” rather than
politicians.
“There isn’t
enough listening [in the Commission]. There isn’t enough listening to the
people,” he said.
Von der
Leyen has long been accused of sidelining critics, promoting allies, governing
through close aides and employing a Machiavellian divide-and-rule strategy
during her years running the EU’s executive arm, which is made up of
representatives from the bloc’s 27 member states.
Barnier
singled out excessive regulation and slow progress on integrating capital
markets across the EU as major failures of the Commission during the von der
Leyen years. The former French prime minister did, however, credit von der
Leyen with successfully responding to the crises she faced, which have included
the Covid pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Though
Barnier and von der Leyen belong to the same political family, the conservative
European People’s Party, they have bad blood that dates back to the last days
of the Brexit negotiations. According to Barnier, von der Leyen sidelined him
as talks with then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson reached the endgame in
2020.
“I thought
it would be normal, after the work I’d done, to be by her side in the last
hours. But it was not the case,” he said.
A
spokesperson for the European Commission declined to comment.
Fishy
business
Barnier’s
book, “What I Have Learnt from You,” mostly chronicles his long political
career in Brussels and Paris, though there are brief mentions of his short
stint leading France’s government last year.
Barnier
lasted just three months in that job, the shortest prime-ministerial tenure in
modern French history. With the release of his book, his name is increasingly
being mentioned in the French press as a possible, albeit long-shot, contender
for the presidency in 2027.
In Brussels,
Barnier is best known for his work leading the Brexit task force and his
catchphrase aimed at the British: “The clock is ticking.”
As the
Brexit deadline neared, Barnier wrote, von der Leyen appeared ready to
sacrifice European fishermen in her quest to secure a trade deal with the
United Kingdom. He observed that fishing became “a secondary, possibly even
marginal” topic for her.
Barnier goes
on to describe how he had to get French President Emmanuel Macron to threaten
to veto the deal if von der Leyen failed to get an agreement on fishing.
Von der
Leyen, he writes, also ignored his departure from the Commission in 2021.
“Decidedly,
we do not have the same concept of work and human relationships,” he said.
Barnier,
however, praised the EU-U.K. reset agreement signed last month, which will make
it easier for British food to be imported and extended the fishing agreement
for EU trawlers.
“It’s a good
idea, it’s in the common interest. We’ll need to get the details but on fishing
it is balanced and correct,” he said.
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