• Tweeter
  • republish

The President-elect of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, delivers a speech at a debate on her election to the European Parliament in Strasbourg on 16 July 2019 REUTERS / Vincent Kessler

Germany's Ursula von der Leyen was elected shortly on Tuesday (July 16th) by the European Commission's European Commission MEPs, becoming the first woman to head the European executive.

The German Christian Democrat Ursula von der Leyen was elected President of the European Commission on Tuesday by the European Parliament, with a narrow majority of 383 out of 327. She was to obtain 374, the majority of the 747 members currently elected in Strasbourg.

Its predecessor, Jean-Claude Juncker, who, like her, came from the European People's Party (EPP), the largest group in Parliament, had 422 votes out of the 376 needed in July 2014.

Currently Minister of Defense in the government of Angela Merkel, Ursula von Leyen was born in Brussels sixty years ago while her father, Ernst Albrecht, worked at the European Commission. She becomes the first woman to assume the presidency.

His candidacy, the fruit of a Franco-German government compromise, had been welcomed by the Parliament, vexed that the candidates proposed by its main political groups were rejected one after another by the heads of state and government.

The EPP and Renaissance, the centrist group on which the Republic is operating, had promised their support, but the far right, the Greens and the radical left refused to vote, while the social-democratic group was divided.

His French delegation, which judged the candidate's proposals insufficient and requested a postponement of the vote to September, announced that it would vote against.

Finally, the Social Democrats announced that they would vote two-thirds in favor of Ursula von der Leyen.

Mother of seven children and a doctor by profession, Ursula von der Leyen is nevertheless credited with a social fiber and a liberal approach to social issues.

In a speech to Parliament on Tuesday morning, she strove to give pledges to the left and the environmentalists on social Europe and the fight against global warming.

The College of 28 Commissioners (of which she herself, one per Member State) which she will now set up, on the basis of the candidates proposed by the States, will be the subject of a second vote of the Parliament, in autumn , after the MEPs have auditioned each of the postulants.