Ursula continues as European Commission President

Ursula von der Leyen, 65, has won the election with a comfortable majority in the European Parliament to serve a second term as President of the European Commission. This was no cakewalk.

She had to stitch together a motley coalition of centre-right, centre-left, centre and the Greens to win the election. She belongs to European Conservatives, a centrist group. She needed 369 in a house of 720, and she secured 410 votes in her favour, and 282 voted against her.

She is a conservative but she does not belong to the far right. And of course the socialists and communists do not trust her because she is a conservative. And the European political tradition allows for many shades. It is difficult to find a conservative-left combination.

And more importantly, von der Leyen has done the impossible thing of getting Green support. The Green politicians and parties have always been with liberals and the left, and never with the conservatives. This was no tactical support of the Greens for the conservative von der Leyen.

She believes in the Green agenda, she takes the challenge of climate change seriously, and she wants to pursue the green agenda of transitioning European Union towards green technologies. And like a good conservative she wants to cushion the European industry during the difficult transition. The European conservative, and this includes the British too though they have exited EU, is not a climate-change denier like the American conservative. Von der Leyen is serious about climate change. She has rightly said in her address to the European Parliament before the election that Europe has to build its own defence and it cannot depend on others. This is a reference to the United States and to the possible election of Republican Donald Trump in the November presidential election. Trump wants Europe to pay for its own defence and he thinks that it is not the responsibility of America to keep NATO running.

Von der Leyen promised that she would work towards a strong European defence union. She is also quite firm in her support for Ukraine and in her opposition to Russia under President Vladimir Putin. She sees Russia as a threat to European democracy and European values.

Her ideological opposition to Russia and Putin is not surprising because conservatives are vehemently opposed to authoritarian states though the conservatives themselves are not great believers in a democracy where individual rights are defended unconditionally.

In some ways, it is good that a person like Von der Leyen with firm views is at the head of the European Commission because the general belief is that Europe is a dead power, and all that it can do is to play second fiddle to the United States. For more than a half-century the European leaders had left global leadership to America. But with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, they have realised that the war in Ukraine is an issue of concern for them more than for America, and that it is a European war and the Americans are but distant neighbours. 

That is why, Von der Leyen is keen on building up European security through her idea of a defence union. Unlike the far right leaders who had won national elections on the issue of illegal immigration, Von der Leyen has been cautious. She does not show herself to be a vicious anti-immigrant leader like many far right leaders. But she would want more regulation.

Her political positions are clear, and even nuanced. She is the kind of leader who understands the challenges facing Europe are complex, but she is not willing to take shelter behind fuzzy formulations. She carries her beliefs on her sleeve and speaks out clearly about them.