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PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron is expected to back Ursula von der Leyen for a second stint as European Commission president, according to three French officials.
Von der Leyen’s center-right European People’s Party is on course to be easily the biggest bloc in the European Parliament after Sunday’s EU election, massively boosting her chances of a return to leading the Brussels executive.
French support was always a concern, however, as the liberal Macron had never explicitly backed the German for a second term, triggering speculation he could try to push for an alternative. His close ally Pascal Canfin told POLITICO last month: “France and everyone in the presidential ecosystem would like [former Italian PM Mario] Draghi to play a role.”
But Macron would now appear to have bigger political challenges than trying to reorder the top table in Brussels.
In contrast to the EPP’s fortunes, the liberals had a terrible EU election night in France and beyond. Macron suffered a crushing defeat, as the far-right National Front cruised to victory with 31 percent of the vote, more than double the result for the president’s allies. While the results were still rolling in, Macron called for a snap parliamentary election in a wild gamble aimed at breaking the far right’s momentum.
“The EPP scored a big victory in the election and the von der Leyen option is very much reinforced,” a French official with knowledge of the top jobs’ negotiations told POLITICO.
“There is no doubt now over the political color of the next Commission presidency,” said the same official who was granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive topic.
A French minister on Monday also said “the main scenario” was that Macron would back von der Leyen in exchange for concessions on France’s policy targets. The fact that “the EPP has made gains and the majority [backing von der Leyen] has shrunk less that expected” has boosted von der Leyen’s chances of a second mandate.
According to two officials, France now wants to get assurances from von der Leyen that her mandate will have a strong focus on industrial policy and satisfy Paris’ demand to allow more subsidies to support the bloc’s economy.
Last month, Macron delivered an alarming speech calling on Europeans to massively invest in strategic areas, such as Artificial Intelligence and renewables in order to compete against China and the U.S.
