The president of the European Commission, the German conservative Ursula von der Leyen, aspires to renew his mandate at the head of the community Executive after the european elections next June, as he communicated this Monday to his party colleagues at a meeting in Berlin of the German Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

This was revealed by the leader of the CDU, Friedrich Merz, in a press conference with Von der Leyen at the end of the party meeting in Berlin.

Despite the announcement this Monday, he will have to wait until the EPP Congress in March in Bucharest for the support of his European political family to be formalized, although the deadline for the presentation of alternative candidatures runs out this week without other names being on the table.

The former German Defense Minister thus formalizes her candidacy to be head of the European People’s Party list (EPP) to the elections to be held throughout the European Union between the June 6 and 9 (Sunday the 9th in Spain).

The re-election of Von der Leyen as head of the Community Executive will depend on the decision of the heads of State and Government of the EU, who after the results of the European elections will negotiate the distribution of the bloc’s senior positions, including the presidency of the Commission. , but also that of the European Council and the European Parliament. Her appointment also requires the approval of the European Parliament, whose plenary session approved her appointment in 2019 by a narrow margin.

Von der Leyen, a doctor by training and 65 yearsbecame almost five years ago the first woman to hold the presidency of the European Commission and since then he has had to face critical moments such as coordinating the response of the Twenty-seven to the coronavirus pandemic or supporting Ukraine against the Russian invasion.

In this time he has been able to gain support among the ranks of other political groups, including the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, who last summer stated in a talk with journalists that he could count on their support if the presidency of the Commission were to return. fall into the hands of the EPP.

However, his early trip to Israel after the Hamas attacks on October 7, despite not having powers in foreign policy and the different sensitivities among the 27, or their recent lukewarmness when defending the Green Deal -flagship of his first term- in the face of rural protests have damaged his consensus profile.