German liberals accuse conservatives of ‘hiding’ von der Leyen in EU campaign

Germany’s liberal coalition party FDP accused Christian Democrat (CDU) opponents of “hiding” their lead candidate for the European elections – European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen – due to her faltering policy performance. 

In its two-day party convention in Berlin on Saturday (27 April), six weeks before the EU elections, the FDP (Renew) stepped up its offensive against centre-right CDU (EPP), its main rival for pro-business voters.

The CDU unveiled its first campaign posters on 19 April. Despite von der Leyen officially being the lead candidate of the EPP, the posters do not show images of her. Instead, they focus on three words: “freedom,” “security,” and “prosperity.”

The party stated that images of von der Leyen would be presented closer to the election.

“There is a reason why the CDU hides its lead candidate for Europe on its posters. Because the bureaucratic hassle in our country has a first name: Ursula,” Finance Minister and leader of the FDP Christian Lindner said.

Lindner blamed von der Leyen for increasing company paperwork and compliance costs, including new reporting obligations, tighter standards and bans, such as the 2035 de facto phase-out of new cars with an internal combustion engine.

Meanwhile, Svenja Hahn, second runner-up on the FDP’s list for the EU election, told Euractiv that “apparently, not even the CDU is campaigning for its candidate.”

“There are no posters for her, she is not seen here in the election campaign, she is not on the ballot paper. So you have to ask yourself whether von der Leyen is running at all,” Hahn added.

The FDP’s lead candidate, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, told the convention that during her last five years leading the EU executive, von der Leyen had failed on all three of her party’s key priorities.

“As former defence minister [of Germany], von der Leyen did not take care of Europe’s security, although the signals from the United States were clear that the European Union – also within NATO – must deliver more, must do more,” Strack-Zimmermann said.

“As former minister of labour, von der Leyen paid little attention to the economy – and certainly [didn’t pay attention] to SMEs,” she said, warning that “companies will leave this Europe and invest in other countries due to the poor business conditions and creeping bureaucracy.”

“As a Christian Democrat, von der Leyen has to justify why she gave money to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán – to successfully conduct accession talks with Ukraine – even though these funds for Hungary had been frozen due to corruption,” added Strack-Zimmermann, who also spearheads the EU liberal ALDE’s campaign. 

Challenging bureaucrats and nationalists alike

Voting for the FDP would be a “double battle cry”, Lindner said.

“On the one hand, we are a challenge to the bureaucrats à la Ursula von der Leyen. But we are also a battle cry against [far-right] AfD, which is seriously flirting with [the idea of] leading Germany out of the European Union and of the monetary union,” Lindner said.

The liberal’s criticism comes a few days after von der Leyen boasted to European Parliament that the EU is “stronger than five years ago” in multiple aspects, including unemployment, which she said stands “at an all-time low”.

However, her native Germany is performing particularly badly economically, which the FDP – alongside business groups – blames on an increase in the regulatory burden for companies, among other factors.

“During our time in government, we have already put building blocks of an economic turnaround in place,” Lindner said, citing Germany’s recent measure to reduce administrative requirements.

“But at the same time as we are cutting red tape from national law, new legislation is coming from Brussels that needs to be implemented,” he added.

Hann said von der Leyen’s repeated pledge to drop corporate reporting requirements by 25% was not credible.

“The Commission itself does not even know how many reporting obligations there are and what kind of duplication there is,” she added, citing a response by the Commission to an EU Parliament’s request by liberal MEP Moritz Körner (Renew).

German newspaper Der Spiegel reported that, according to an answer from Commission’s Executive Vice President Maroš Šefčovič, the EU executive is currently still determining “the total effort associated with the reporting obligations”.

“This means that the Commission must first do its homework,” Hahn concluded.

[Edited by Oliver Noyan/Anna Brunetti/Alice Taylor]

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