The president of the Commission leaves it open whether she wants a second term. Because you would have to campaign for it. Your party is already positioning alternatives.
Brussels. As her five-year term nears the home stretch, one question is getting louder: will Ursula von der Leyen remain president of the European Commission beyond 2024? Both officially and in background conversations, she keeps her cards under wraps. There are personal reasons that speak in favor of it, others that speak against it. So she still hasn’t made up her mind.
The two probably most important reasons can be found on pages 131 and 177 of the coalition agreement that the SPD, FDP and Greens sealed last year. “We support a uniform European electoral law with partially transnational lists and a mandatory system of main candidates”, says the first. And secondly: “Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen have the right to nominate the European Commissioner, as long as the President of the Commission is not from Germany.”