Where’s Ursula?
At a time of challenge, crisis and opportunity, the European Union desperately needs courage and leadership
Earlier this year, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was confined for a week in a German hospital with severe pneumonia. It took eight days for anyone to have taken notice of her absence. Imagine President Trump going MIA for just eight hours … the media would have been speculating on his demise.
Ursula von der Leyen has been nothing more than a shadow since she won re-election as European Commission president last year following the 2024 European Parliament elections. Her speeches are unremarkable, unattended and unreported. Her vision, policies and strategies change with the wind. Ursula has become a rudderless leader in a time when the European Union so badly needs direction, strong policies and visionaries.
Some examples of von der Leyen’s failure to make an impact on the political landscape:
As Donald Trump launches trade tariffs, embraces Russia, threatens Ukraine and portrays the European Union as a threat to America, what has the world, and Europeans, heard from von der Leyen? … crickets. Clearly there are no plans for Ursula to visit the Oval Office to “Kiss the Ring”, but the absence of any strong leadership on the global stage just emboldens Donald Trump.
At the same time, Trump is fighting for American workers, investment in America, attracting trillions in FDI commitments, more favorable trade agreements, access to rare earths and minerals, influence in peace negotiations … From Ursula, we have heard … crickets. She is not standing up for European automakers, film producers, farmers, steelmakers, wine and spirits producers … Her leaderlessness is tragic, making the EU an easy punching bag for American expansionism.
When the UK-led Coalition of the Willing stepped up to reassure Ukraine of European support in the absence of American commitments to their continuing battle against Russia, von der Leyen was nowhere to be found. In the famous trip last week in a train car to Kyiv, when the leaders of the UK, France, Germany and Poland met with Ukrainian leaders, where was Ursula? Will she be at the table in the peace negotiations in Istanbul tomorrow? No one is expecting anything from von der Leyen anymore.
Early into her second term, the Draghi Report stated very clearly that the European Union needs to invest more in its economies, infrastructure, deregulation and development. Most importantly, the EU needs to finalize its European Capital Markets Union to direct more European investment within the EU, rather to other, more functioning markets. Outside of a strategy of simplification, there is no progress toward easing the financial barriers for trade and investment within European Member States. There is no strategy for growth (and only a hollow euphemism that von der Leyen calls “competitiveness”)
Even when Ursula tries to lead, she fails to make an impact. Her speech several weeks ago at the Sorbonne in Paris should have been an open call to attract American innovators and scientists facing academic restrictions and loss of research freedoms to come to Europe, but her message fell flat. She received almost no media coverage.
On the bright side, von der Leyen is better known than the President of the European Council – the shadow leader who took over the reins from Charles Michel. Most Europeans have no idea who this former prime minister is or what he stands for.
This is not a time for backroom or rearguard leadership. Europe is at a crossroads in its history, at a time when the global economic, trade and political landscapes are heaving with revolutions, chaos and uncertainty. The European Union (and the euro) could position itself as a bastion of stability, of democracy and of free trade … if it had a leader to stand up and boldly lead. Instead we have an empty chair.
From Missing Chair to Empty Chair
In her first term, von der Leyen did have her moments of impact.
She fought pharmaceutical companies to ensure European citizens had access to sufficient COVID-19 vaccines and EU-based vaccine production.
She stood up to Putin after his invasion of Ukraine and visited Kyiv and its surrounding populations shortly after Ukrainian control was restored.
She played hardball in negotiating with the British government on a BREXIT agreement ensuring that no other EU Member States would consider a similar move (while keeping a warm, personal relationship with then Prime Minister Boris Johnson).
Such examples of statesmanship made Ursula von der Leyen an easily recognizable leader on the world stage. It ensured that there was no real competition to her in 2024 as she sought a second term.
These successes almost camouflaged the dismal failures of the first von der Leyen term.
She watched helplessly as one of the greatest European Union successes, Schengen, the open border and free movement of goods and people, disintegrated not once, but twice: first during the COVID lockdowns and then during the migration crisis, where both Hungary and Germany erected physical borders.
She was unable to mobilize anything more than weak, “targeted sanctions” against the Russian economy, thus enabling Putin to build up a war economy that is now a greater threat to Europe than ever.
She could not control several of her more ambitious Commissioners (like Thierry Breton or Frans Timmermans), and in the case of the latter, she had to follow him down his radical left Green Deal rabbit hole. Her first term ended with European farmers reacting to her policies by spraying cow slurry across the streets and EU offices in Brussels and Strasbourg. Learning from this, the second term cabinet of European Commissioners are a collection of shadows who would never dare deflect any light from their Commission president.
Ursula has admitted that the lowest point of her presidency was in 2021 when she and European Council president, Charles Michel went to Türkiye for talks with President Erdoğan in what became known as “sofagate”. In front of the cameras, the leaders arrived to be seated in front of the flags where there were only two chairs. von der Leyen, having to sit on a side sofa, later blamed the gaffe on sexism (but was that Turkish sexism or was it from Charles Michel who quickly took the available seat?). If she wanted to be a leader for women’s rights, why didn’t she just leave the meeting directly and take a stand for equity? She could have done so much from this event to break that glass ceiling.
Perhaps that is what haunts Ursula still today, feebly claiming she felt “hurt and left alone", as "a woman and as a European". Is this fear of again being snubbed on the world stage preventing von der Leyen from standing up and leading for European citizens. Does she prefer to avoid defending European manufacturers and consumers rather than risk being treated in an unpleasant manner in the Oval Office in front of a media rats nest?
So instead of a missing chair, Europe has an empty chair. Leadership by optics rather than vision. Do Europeans, facing a decade of economic decline and rising prices, deserve this?
Henry Kissinger once noted that if he wanted to speak to Europe, whom would he call? Europe has a number now but no one seems to be willing to answer the phone. Meanwhile Trump’s strategy of dividing and weakening the European Union is going undefended as Brussels is defined by a leaderless functionary.
That Vision Thing
Many things can be said about EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, but having a consistent vision is not one of them. She goes around giving speeches written for her by consultants trained in following the latest narrative trends.
von der Leyen started her first term in 2019 claiming that climate change was the greatest challenge of our time and that the EU would launch a Green Deal with ambitious goals to lead on emission reductions and green technologies (this though was the Commission Vice-President, Frans Timmermans’ tail wagging the European dog).
When COVID-19 brought Europe to a standstill, von der Leyen slowly pivoted to creating a European Union that was safe, secure and healthy, obtaining a large funding scheme as European Member States scrambled to hoard resources.
Both of these posturings faded when Russia invaded Ukraine and sanctions of Russian gas and oil were tepidly implemented. At this time, Ursula began demanding more fossil fuels and pipelines from other regions. The former German Defense Minister did not seize the moment to demand greater investment in European-built military hardware.
In 2023, following the lead from opportunists in the financial industry and the World Economic Forum, von der Leyen embraced the strategy for the European Union to promote a “degrowth economy”. But once Frans Timmermans left the scene to try to become the Dutch prime minister, she again pivoted, calling for a “European Industrial Green Deal” to ensure competitiveness and growth.
Starting her second term at the head of the European Commission, and following an anti-green backlash during elections across Europe, the chief regulator called for a new era of deregulation with her strategy of simplification.
Without a clear vision or set of values that defines her, Ursula von der Leyen is now listing, lost and rudderless as history is quickly passing her by. Adapting to the shifting winds and changing policies might be a useful strategy in calm days with gentle breezes, but not with the ongoing daily hurricanes of news events.
At the same time, most of the attention von der Leyen gets is scandal-ridden. Today, the Pfizergate inquiry condemned von der Leyen’s non-transparent behavior. She was criticized for taking a private jet from Brussels to Luxembourg (a two-hour drive) last week with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and two other EU officials. Last month she was condemned for attending the European People’s Party annual meeting in Valencia, Spain and, while she was there, choosing to not meet with survivors of the flash floods that crippled the city.
As trade and tariff threats push European economies to the brink of recessions and decline; as geopolitical shifts redefine global landscapes at rapid speeds; as EU countries grapple with the rise of anti-EU, anti-immigrant fascist or extreme left parties; as the European Union has opportunities to lead and fill the democratic, research and free-trade voids; this is the time in Europe’s history for strong vision and brave leadership. Europe is in desperate need of this.
The last thing Europeans need is for Ursula von der Leyen to complete her second term. The stakes are too high for four more years of leaderless absence without vision, courage and statesmanship. Let the present scandals allow the leaders of European Member States to use that as an excuse to find someone more capable of defending European interests.
Where have you gone, Mario Draghi? Our nations turn their lonely eyes to you…