BERLIN — Germany’s center-right Christian Democrats will support Ursula von der Leyen if she chooses to seek a second term in 2024 as the EU’s top executive, party leader Friedrich Merz said Monday.
Merz, whose party is Germany’s main opposition to Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition government, made the remarks alongside von der Leyen, the European Commission president. Von der Leyen was in Berlin for meetings with leaders from her political family, the CDU.
“She has our support in the event of a corresponding willingness,” Merz said, adding that he had conveyed this to Scholz as well, expressing the hope that Germany would propose von der Leyen.
Von der Leyen, however, was coy about her intentions. The Commission president’s term will be up in 2024 after the European election, and von der Leyen has yet to officially say whether she will push for another five-year stint.
“For me, it is very important that we show unity and strength in the European Union in these critical times, and therefore the institutions work as united as possible,” she said. “And that’s why it’s not the right time for me at the moment to answer this question for a next mandate.”
Merz was also pressed about the so-called Spitzenkandidaten system — the process by which European political parties each select a lead candidate in the EU election to become Commission president. It’s still unclear whether the system will be used — or honored — in 2024, as von der Leyen was appointed to her job in 2019 without being a Spitzenkandidat for any party.
Merz stressed that Scholz’s coalition government had actually already struck an agreement to back the Spitzenkandidaten process. Von der Leyen only added that the design of the Spitzenkandidaten model will be “decided in due course.”
“Here, the European Council and the European parties — that means the Council and Parliament in the broadest sense — will play a decisive role,” she added.
