Von der
Leyen emerges from illness to join show of support for Germany’s Merz
European
Commission president is in Berlin for her first public appearance since she was
admitted to hospital.
January 17,
2025 7:21 pm CET
By Max
Griera, Sarah Wheaton, Jürgen Klöckner, Hans von der Burchard and Rasmus
Buchsteiner
European
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen appeared in public on Friday, having
shaken off serious illness ― and promptly dived straight into national politics
by backing Friedrich Merz to become Germany’s next chancellor.
Von der
Leyen, who hails from the same center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) as
Merz, joined a show of support during a Berlin gathering ostensibly focused on
economics, security and migration.
Von der
Leyen’s movements have been closely watched since the Commission announced that
she was ill.
The
Commission president was briefly hospitalized with a severe bout of pneumonia
and has been working remotely from Hannover. She appeared on Friday at the CDU
headquarters in Berlin along with nine heads of government and six opposition
leaders from her center-right European People’s Party (EPP).
The
Commission’s press service said that while recovering she was in “daily
contact” with her teams in Brussels, but failed to disclose that she had been
taken into hospital until after she returned home.
Von der
Leyen is not expected to speak publicly at the two-day event. “It is not
abnormal that the European Commission president is not participating” in the
press conference, said an EPP official, granted anonymity to speak candidly.
She will,
however, sign up to an EPP action plan with the other leaders geared at
boosting Merz’s chances at the Feb. 23 election, in which he’s facing off
against current center-left Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and far-right candidate
Alice Weidel.
For Merz,
head of the CDU, the event is a chance to show off his connection to the EU’s
most powerful people. For Manfred Weber, chair of the EPP, who is hosting the
event and belongs to the CDU’s Bavarian sister party, the CSU, it’s a chance to
show Merz his ability to rally support.
In comments
to Berlin Playbook, Weber promised a return to German dominance in Brussels
under Merz.
A
CDU/CSU-led federal government would “once again speak with one voice in Europe
― that is what Friedrich Merz stands for,” Weber said. “Contentious issues
between government partners must be resolved in the coalition committee in
Berlin and not on the open stage in Brussels.”
Polish Prime
Minister Donald Tusk, Weber’s predecessor as EPP president, is not in
attendance as he is hosting U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer in Warsaw, where
they’ll discuss a new U.K.-Poland defense pact.
One of the
conclusion documents from the event focuses on how to slash EU “red tape” to
bolster competitiveness, vowing that for every new “burdensome regulation,” two
existing pieces of regulation will have to be abolished. In addition,
guidelines on sustainability reporting requirements for companies and due
diligence obligations for companies should be reined in, the draft states.
“We are
committed to a substantial reduction in bureaucracy and regulation,” reads the
document, which was seen by POLITICO.
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário