The 'popular' Von der Leyen succeeds Juncker as the new president of the European Commission

The German Ursula von der Leyen has been appointed as the new President of the European Commission to replace Jean-Claude Juncker. A member of Merkel’s CDU and, therefore, of the European People’s Party, the current German Defense Minister has ended up being the consensus candidate after successive blockades against Weber and Timmermans. The announcement was made by the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk. , after three days of negotiations in Brussels. Angela Merkel stressed that the appointments have been made unanimously. Germany, for its part, was the only country that abstained in the appointment of Von der Leyen as the new head of the Community Executive. The reason lies in the reluctance shown in this regard by the German Socialists, who are partners in Merkel’s government. The Socialists, of course, have communicated that this agreement is “unacceptable.” The appointment is subject to the vote in the plenary session that will take place between July 15 and 17 in Strasbourg. Von der Leyen, 60 years old and mother of seven children, is a person very close to Angela Merkel. In his day, in fact, he got to enter the pools to succeed the chancellor. Francophile and appreciated by Paris, she has been a key figure in Franco-German defense cooperation, while the Dutch Social Democrat Frans Timmermans, the Social Democratic candidate to preside over the European Commission, will finally be the First Vice-President of the Community Executive and the Danish liberal Margrethe Vestager will be the second vice president, as stated by the acting president of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, at a press conference at the end of the European Council.Sánchez has described as “extraordinary” the agreement of distribution of positions, by which the Spanish minister Josep Borrell will be the high representative of the EU for Foreign Policy. The agreement, he said, assumes that “Spain has returned.”