Schulz told POLITICO’s EU Election Playbook allowing that to happen was “in my eyes a mistake.”
“That would have been a contribution to deepen the feeling that Europe is … democratic … and not a construction where everything is at the end decided behind closed doors,” he said.
Five years later, von der Leyen wants a second term at the Commission, and will get the formal nod from her European People’s Party at a congress in Bucharest next month.
“You see that her so-called Spitzenkandidaten role is a fake role,” Schulz said over the phone.
Von der Leyen has been pitching herself this week as someone who “ran” in 2019.
“One thing is true, she ran in 2019 — but not for the European Parliament, but she ran away from her ministry in Germany,” Schulz quipped about the ex-defense minister. Von der Leyen’s center-right CDU is the main opposition to Schulz’s Social Democrats in Germany.
Schulz went a step further, saying von der Leyen should step down. “She should not be in office as president of the European Commission, flying to the G7 summit, meeting the heads of state and government, being in the Council, this is an inappropriate advantage in relation to other candidates.”
When asked if she’d resign this week, von der Leyen said: “I have to strictly divide or separate this role from the role of lead candidate of EPP and campaigning.” She said there is a “whole set of rules” about what she can and can’t do.
