Charles Michel continues to feud with von der Leyen

Charles Michel (MR), the current President of the European Council, should lead discussions on who will take the top job after the European elections. In addition, his feud with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen appears to have reached its peak. Michel will exclude her from those conversations.

In the news: Michel will hold informal talks with European leaders on June 17. He might consider not inviting von der Leyen.

• It is up to Michel to decide who can attend those talks. This includes a discussion of the new presidents of the European Commission, the European Council, the European Parliament and the High Representative for Foreign Affairs. According to a news site POLITICO Michel may consider excluding von der Leyen. The reason is that it is inappropriate to allow von der Leyen to participate in talks in which her position is discussed. After all, there’s a good chance she’ll succeed herself.
• But as leaders are also discussing Michel’s succession, insiders call this motive somewhat hypocritical. “If he wanted to get her out of the room, he would have to kick himself,” one diplomat said.
• Another said: “Member states are becoming increasingly angry about the role of Charles Michel in the process of selecting the President of the Commission.” “He appears to be driven by purely personal motives.”
• Previously written PolicyIt all had to do with angry European politicians who noticed that Michel was trying to thwart von der Leyen. It gets personal, they noted. The fact that Michel tried to claim so much power when von der Leyen is in fact the more important figure is not appreciated. An example of this is the movie “Sofagate” in which Michel gets a seat next to Turkish President Erdogan. Von der Leyen had to content himself with sitting on the bench on the sidelines.

An unprecedented situation

to follow: At the same time, this situation is completely new.

• In 2014, the system for appointing the President of the European Commission was reformed. Each European faction appoints a party leader who is the candidate. For the Christian Democratic European People’s Party (EPP), this was von der Leyen. She managed to persuade and won with her party temporary 189 seats inside. This means that the European People’s Party is making progress.
• However, this is the first time since the introduction of the system that the current Commission President is a candidate to succeed himself. Consequently, the various protocols regarding who may be present in conversations have not been fixed.
• However, there’s not much sympathy for the way Michel is handling it now. There will also be irritation within the von der Leyen team itself. No one at Michelle wanted to respond POLITICO.