Is von der Leyen running for a second term?
The president's state of the union sounded like a campaign speech, and she wants to "finish the job". But this is an appointment not an election. VDL's biggest obstacles are her party and her country.
Whatever lingering doubts about the ‘will she or won’t she?’ question were still around, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen put them to rest yesterday in the final State of the European Union address of her (first?) term. The only remaining question is ‘can she?’
The address, given by the EU President to a sitting of the European Parliament once a year, is a copy of the US version - a tradition created by the Lisbon Treaty and first given in 2010. Von der Leyen started her speech talking about next year’s election and mentioned not-so-subtly that she has 300 days left until the election. The official feed of the speech featured taxpayer-funded campaign graphics about her political accomplishments (can you imagine that happening with the US state of the union?). The question everyone in Brussels is asking is whether she wants a second term. But because of the weirdness of the EU’s system of picking a president, it almost doesn’t matter whether she wants it or not. In fact, in order to get it she needs to pretend she doesn’t want it. She reportedly has already confirmed she will not run as a candidate in the parliament election, and it is unclear whether the EPP will position her as their lead candidate for president.