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Von der Leyen: The Rise of the European Lady
By Ben Judah
Translator: Dong Luyao
Introduction to French and Italian
In July 2019, Ursula von der Leyen, vice president of the German Christian Democratic Union and then Defense Minister of Germany, was elected president of the new European Commission and officially took office in December. As the first female President of the European Commission in the history of the European Union, Ursula von der Leyen's inauguration is the product of compromise between the various groups in the European Parliament. After taking office, she not only needs to deal with Brexit, but soon has to face the impact of the new crown epidemic on the European continent. The harsh reality of the situation contains opportunities and crises, can she meet the challenges? Will Europe reunite and revitalize under her leadership or will the situation continue to deteriorate? Ben Judah is a journalist and author of This is London: Life and Death in the World City. He published "The rise of Mrs Europe" in The Critic in October 2020. The author explores ursula von der Leyen's life experience and the political experience of her father, Ernst Albrecht, and portrays the contradictions and ups and downs of the German woman's growth experience and the confidence and doubts held by the EUROPEAN Union during the epidemic, and points out that her decision-making and path choices will affect the future development of the European Commission and Europe.
With regard to Ursula von der Leyen, the first thing that draws attention is something unreal about the flawless politician, qualities that are difficult to evaluate, that are as secret and opaque as the glass doors of the European Commission's headquarters, promising to be honest but not revealing anything but not revealing anything.
One cannot turn a blind eye to her, for europe cannot be understood without understanding Ursula von der Leyen. Born in Brussels, she was the child of the first generation of EC officials; she was the embodiment of the class that could determine whether the EU would evolve into a federal state or move toward disintegration. Her political stance, like the Rosetta Stone's reliable interpretation of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, reveals how Merkel's politics really worked. Her life reveals Germany's journey in Europe and whether the direction it is heading in still makes sense. From Brussels, where she was born, to Berlin to the Berlaymont Mansion, from von der Leyen's father to herself, it was a journey from prayer to power, from ideal to anxiety.
The agendas of German ministers are constant. Go to the EU for ministerial meetings, stop over the weekends in the federal states, and endless joint cabinet meetings with twelve allies. They were a group of people who slept on airplanes and were often exhausted. In 2009, at the biennial Polish-German cabinet meeting in Warsaw, Polish Finance Minister Jacek Rostowski sat next to "this petite and beautiful woman." Rostovsky glanced at her. He did not know the minister. "But somehow I had a feeling that I knew her." She introduced herself: Ursula von der Leyen, Minister of Labour and Social Affairs. But Rostovsky was still not impressed.
The cycle of meetings and discussions is continuous. The elites who manage Europe will never stay in the same room for long. About six months later in Davos, the Polish minister found himself sitting next to the same German minister. They shook hands and greeted each other, after which Rostovsky flew back to Warsaw. "Three days later, a sensation hit me in the back of the head from top to bottom." Everything rolled back.
Earls Court, London, 1978. London is like the Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, with occasional blasts at the pillow. Rostowski was a young lecturer at the time, the son of a Polish exile. The house he lived in was divided into apartments by his mother, and the top floor was rented out to Erich Stromeyer, a newly divorced German banker.
One day, Stromeyer told them that his brother-in-law was a prominent German politician and that the Baader-Meinhof gang[1] was threatening to kidnap and murder his daughter. Because of the critical situation, Stromeyer asked the Rostowski family if they would mind moving the little girl to London to live with her so that she could learn about the past crisis at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
She moved in under the pseudonym Rose Ladson. "She had some baby fat," Rostovsky recalled, "but was very cheerful and friendly, always out of the house." "Her real name was Ursula Gertrud Albrecht, and Rostovsky quickly noticed that she liked to return late and didn't return to Phil Beach Gardens until 1 a.m." When she returned to the apartment, she never bothered to carefully close the door. I think it seems a bit careless because it is said that someone tried to kidnap and kill her. ”
[1] The Baader-Meinhof gang, also known as the Red Army Faction, a Left-Wing Terrorist Group in West Germany in the 1970s.
Ursula Albrecht with her parents in 1978
At that time, the London School of Economics and Political Science was not yet a direct school in London, and international students had little team spirit. The school was imbued with the ideas of Ralph Darrendorff, and the specter of the spirit of the Sidney and Beatrice Webbs still lingered in political activity. But "Rose Radson" knew almost nothing about it because she was never there.
She has seen The Clash perform at Hammersmith Palais, indulged in punk rock, and spent more time in the bars and Camden record stores in London's Soho than in london's political and economic libraries. She has earned a reputation for "enjoying being unleashed in discotheques" and once said, "My life is more important than my studies." Such words.
London has everything that Germany doesn't have. She told Die Zeit: "For me, London is the epitome of modernity, it means freedom, the joy of life and trying everything. "The love of London explains the particular pain that many of Europe's elites have suffered from Brexit, who still subscribe to the ideas of the advocates of the Remain movement. Eight former EU ministers are alumni of the London School of Economics and Political Science. On behalf of the European Parliament, however, Jasik Rostovsky supported change UK. The place where they became "Europeans" was London, not Paris.
"Europe means the story of generation after generation." Ursula von der Leyen told the EU Parliament. Like George Bush or Justin Trudeau, the committee chair could not be understood without knowing her father, Albrecht. In fact, the name refers not only to a person, but also to an honor. Ursula, 20, was able to derive extraordinary pleasure from the pseudonym Ross Radson precisely because she was freed from the burden of taking the surname "Albrecht" as her surname. The surname's association with the Phil Beach Gardens Penthouse is no accident. The Albrecht family has twelve generations of prominent figures, from pastors and well-respected doctors to state legislators and big businessmen. They looked down on Ursula von der Leyen through this surname. The Albrecht family even possessed their own entries in the Deutsches Geschlechterbuch (Handbook of genealogy of the German aristocracy and bourgeoisie), which corresponded to the German version of Burke's Landed Gentry.
Until the 19th century, the Albrecht family was a commercial aristocrat in the city of Bremen, importing cotton and marrying the Radson family, a plantation owner in South Carolina who owned slaves. These German merchants contributed far more to colonies established under British or American flags than one would normally recognize. They were the kind of people who were ridiculed by Thomas Mann from Lübeck in The Magic Mountain: "a firm belief in the right of the nobility to rule".
In 1945, amid the wreckage of two world wars, Ernst Albrecht was growing. The city of Bremerhaven was almost completely destroyed. But Ernst is in love, smart and resourceful and ambitious. He needed the highest degree and wanted to marry Heidi Adele Stromeyer, the daughter of a family friend, who had escaped the RAF manhunt together.
Before receiving a Cornell scholarship, he went to the University of Tübingen in the American-occupied territory to study philosophy and theology. A new generation of German elites was shaped by the United States, and he was determined to join them. Before crossing the Atlantic, he confessed his love to Heidi. Back in Europe, Ernst was drawn to Konrad Adenauer's new capital, Bonn, where the University of Bonn rose rapidly, like the country's Bel lière. Ernst Albrecht's postgraduate thesis was titled "Is Monetary Union a Prerequisite for Economic Union?" "It will prove to be a wise choice. He knows it too.
Albrecht's career is smooth and the clouds are straight up. At the age of 24, he was appointed Commissioner of the European Coal and Steel Community in Luxembourg, while the European Union was still in its toddler years, and he continued to be promoted. In a faded photograph of a 1957 Rome palace with slightly obscure faces, leaders sit together in a line and sign a document. Renaissance paintings hang behind them. They were the men behind the Treaty of Rome. The Treaty of Rome, the fundamental act of the European Economic Community, is the most important treaty in Europe since the treaty of Westphalia. Ernst Albrecht stood behind Adenauer.
Although German officials ensured courtesy to Italians and French in public, Ernst was hardly affected by postwar guilt. He said: "Dear people, you may be willing to rebuild Europe with us, you may not be willing. We are a new generation, and history should be left to the foregoing. I represent my country as impartially as the French. ”
Europe itself is albrecht's aim, which is also the pursuit of national interests. His supreme leader was Walter Hallstein, the first president of the Commission of the European Economic Community, who embodied some of the contradictions that at first glance seemed contradictory. Like Adenauer himself, this "forgotten European" refused to accept the new border with western Poland drawn by the Oder-Nice line and named it "Halstanism", which established or maintained diplomatic relations with no country other than the Soviet Union that had diplomatic relations with East Germany. West Germany was so weak that it could not gain a foothold in geopolitics. Adenauer and Halstein need a stronger Europe.
After the Treaty of Rome, the Albrecht family moved to Brussels. At that time, the city was very different from the city that today is a stopover for Eurostar trains. Ernst was appointed Chief Adviser to Germany's first Cabinet Minister. Here, the working language is French and english is hardly used. Some areas of the core Six are in the Carolingian style. It's a world of only men, working late, staying out after work to drink or attend political events.
When Heidi Adele found out she was pregnant with her third child, she put a child chair in front of Ernst's office, tripped him, and announced the pregnancy. Ursula Gertrude was born in Brussels on October 8, 1958, just 18 months after the signing of the Treaty of Rome. Her mother wrote in her diary: "You are such a fascinating child. "The first child born without crying and screaming." Her nickname, Röschen (meaning Little Rose), is the nickname for "Rose".
Ursula studied politics from her father and the purpose of politics from her mother. Heidi Adele belongs to a repressed generation of women, with the door of education open to them but the door of occupation rejecting it. She graduated from Heidelberg with a doctorate from Freiburg and, according to her family, could have become a gifted writer or a famous journalist. But she can only become a shadow of her husband, devoting her energy to the dramatic world in her diary.
Little Rose became Ernst's favorite. "The guest at home was ursula Gertrude, who was only two years old." Her mother wrote in her diary. Their six children grew up in Europe, and Ursula was sent to a new European school, where they were the children of bureaucrats in Brussels-based organizations such as the European Economic Community (EEC), NATO, Euratom, European Atomic Energy Community, etc., who received trilingual instruction and spontaneously became elites. A few years later, Boris Johnson briefly attended the same school on the outskirts of Uklea.
The Albrecht family had everything they needed and lived a well-paid and elegant life. But the longer they stayed in Brussels, the more unhappy they became. Since the age of 20, Ernst has hovered behind the great men of the German Christian Democratic Union[4], and he is eager to become one of them. "I'm 37 years old, at the pinnacle of my bureaucratic career in Europe. Will I still be waiting for someone else to compete in the post of Director General on my 65th birthday? It's unimaginable. In the 1960s, it wasn't all that gratifying for a German to become a European official. De Gaulle said he would not tolerate a committee favoring federalism and presidentialism overshadowing a mighty France. Ernst began to actively maneuver among politicians.
Now in Brussels, not far from the Charlemagne Building, you can see the panels and flags above the doors, which represent Europe and reflect Germany. Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg, each of the German federal states has its own EU delegation, and they enjoy better configuration and housing than many run-down member states. The lavish interior reveals why Germany, a country that was internally strifeed and part of the Holy Roman Empire throughout its long political history, was so comfortable in the European Union – because federalism was its natural form.
Albrecht's "territory" was located in the North Sea state of Lower Saxony, roughly in the Kingdom of Hanover, where his grandfather had served as director of customs. When Ernst sought a position, the party placed him on a job at a biscuit factory in Hanover. He left his family in 1970 and moved there. In January 1971, their daughter Benita died of a spinal tumor, and the rest of the family followed him to Hanover. Ursula, 11, became the only daughter in the family.
The Albrecht family opposed and even ignored the 1968 Student Movement in Germany. They prayed before dinner. They live in an old farmhouse in Ilten, just outside Hanover, surrounded by huge blackberry bushes, decorated in a manor style. Life is filled with horses, family concerts, and large books borrowed from the library, such as War and Peace or Doctor Zhivago, for self-improvement.
Here Ursula's character is gradually shaped, including her love of music, animals and public attention. Her main routines include skydiving and dutifully welcoming celebrities who come to the house to meet their father. Unlike her siblings, she is happy to show herself. However, her biographers Ulrike Demmer and Daniel Goffart point out that her father did not take her seriously. "The conservative Albrecht has reservations about women's issues." Journalist Rolf Zick recalled.
In 1976, with the support of three defectors from the ruling coalition, a powerful vote made Ernst Albrecht governor of Lower Saxony. The right-wing politics of the 1970s, which had yet to confirm its mission, was a game of land snakes, iron-fisted men and some veteran conservative reactionaries, with Lower Saxony being Ernst's turf.
The lives of Ernst's children changed even more dramatically. Ordinary members of the CDU in Lower Saxony admire the governor's gifted daughter. Hans-Gert Pöttering, the later president of the European Parliament, recalled the more radical "first daughter" of her youth: "People in the party who did not know her personally met her through politicians talking about the girl known as "Röschen" and getting to know her... She was already considered an extraordinary person at the time. ”
As the "First Lady" of Lower Saxony, Mrs. Albrecht arranged the performance. Like the plot of Queen Victoria or Little Women, the mother wrote a play performed by the children at a family gathering. During Christmas or Easter, the character will be assigned to other children in the village. Ernst Albrecht's family performance, or rather, his family's performance, is inextricably linked to politics.
Like a combination of the Joseph Kennedy and von Trapp families in the German provinces, Ernst not only invited people to photograph his idyllic home, but also had a family choir of wives and children perform on local television. In 1978, David Bowie sang the song "Heroes" in West Berlin, where lovers from East and West Germany "will defeat them for even one day",[5] while the Albrecht family released the single "Well in God's Beautiful World". But this is not the case. German society was polarized, divided and fearful, and Ursula's brothers went to school in police cars. That's why she felt so free at Camden Bazaar in England.
That period at Stanford was the trough of Ursula's life. In the early nineties she was a frustrated housewife, her husband was on the move, and her mother's fate was historically repeated. That year, after six semesters in London, the threat of the Badr-Mainhof group was lifted, and "Ross Radson" had to become Ursula Albrecht again. After returning to the University of Göttingen, she felt lonely and depressed until she met Heiko von der Leyen in the university's choir at the age of 24. Heiko von der Leyen was a scientist whose family had been engaged in silk weaving and selling for generations. Ursula followed him to California.
[2] The Clash is a British punk band formed in 1976 and was one of the first members of the British punk rock band. It was dissolved in early 1986.
[3] The genealogy compiled by John Burke lists the families of untitled nobles who owned a certain size of rural land and the gentry without hereditary titles.
[4] Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands (CDU)
[5] David Bowie《Heroes》歌词，”we can beat them just for one day.”
Von der Leyen and his children
Ursula Albrecht belonged to the repressed generation. While education and job opportunities have opened their doors to women, families still enjoy an overriding stake, and attitudes towards the role of men have not changed substantially. But Ursula sees herself as hitting a "static hierarchy." She graduated from the Hannover Medical School in 1992 and worked as a doctor, but when she became pregnant, she was dismissed by her superiors as "too lazy to go to work". According to her biographer, Heiko "couldn't help her" with the day-to-day task of raising her children. On the contrary, like many women, she fell into the trap of having her husband do the housework together. When Heiko taught at Stanford, she stopped working altogether. Her friend Sabine Kramer recalls: "That was the case at the time, and we never complained when our husbands pursued their careers. ”
Fifteen years later, everything was turned upside down. "I didn't expect patriarchy to end like this." Rebecca Harms, then of the Lower Saxony Green Ministry, said. "I never imagined it would be eliminated by the CDU." In 2005, Angela Merkel was elected Chancellor and von der Leyen was elected Minister of Family and Social Affairs by the Lower Saxony Government. Hamez is shocked that the daughter of an ultra-conservative who has gone to great lengths to get her into politics is now a running representative for gender equality.
In 1996 von der Leyen returned to Germany and returned to his father's political path. Most of her political career depends on a chance, which for her took place at a horse auction in 1999. As a performer, she impressed Christian Wulff.[6] The future president, Wulf, found her not only a great rider, but also a mother with her seventh child in her womb just six months old. He saw ambition and determination. He saw courage and perseverance.
Talk shows with heavy armchairs and deep sofas were an important part of German political life and a key factor in von der Leyen's rise. She first served as a façade figure in the campaign for the state of Saxony under the Wulf government, and won the attention of Angela Merkel. Day and night, she acted as Merkel's "microphone" to create a family-friendly CDU, which is where von der Leyen's strength lies.
Ursula was able to make a great television personality because every German knows two things: first, she is the daughter of Ernst Albrecht; second, she has seven children. Von der Leyen is indeed another name, but for the viewer the message is simple: the party she belongs to is no longer the party that prevailed in her father's time, but a party acceptable to the urban bourgeoisie. The period from Minister of the Family to Minister of Labour was the heyday of von der Leyen's career. She advocated childcare, demanded paid parental leave, and did not compromise even when her party opposed her. A CDU source said: "It's no secret that this makes her unpopular in her own party. ”
When it comes to how the government works, Merkel always uses outsiders to open the way, win over moderates in the middle, and then adjust to ensure that neither side becomes too strong. "Knock on those who need to know their place." A source said. Merkel is an extremely rigorous politician who will not let anyone misunderstand her intentions. But in 2010, she allowed Ursula to think she would be the next president, so much so that the story of Heiko becoming the "first husband" began to emerge. However, Merkel ended up choosing Christian Wulf. Ursula, devastated and scarred, had thought she had a special relationship with Merkel. Merkel later explained: "That's politics.
For nearly fifteen years, Merkel was a Thomas Cromwell-like figure. This physics and quantum chemist from the former East Germany, with a portrait of Catherine the Great, has a long history of German politics on his desk. The historical tasks of her generation were accomplished through German reunification. Merkel achieved her political goals more like a scientist than an idealist, willing to chart routes for Germany and herself between wavering and colliding forces rather than procedurally achieving them. The name Ursula von der Leyen means a tool for maintaining the status quo, not a friend.
Lounges at Brussels Airport. British politicians see Brussels as a stop on the Eurostar train, which most Europeans arrive here by plane. Germans and Italians; Germans and Swedes; Germans and Poles; and the cautious diplomatic activities of European speech and deeds took place in this lounge. In 2011, as Greece gradually broke away from the contract, Jasik Rostovsky and Ursula von der Leyen discussed the euro crisis in the lounge. "I told her it wasn't a Greek crisis, it was a eurozone crisis," he recalled. And she didn't know. "This is anecdote about von der Leyen, but it also shows that by 2011 Germany's european journey was no longer meaningful.
Von der Leyen joined the Ministry of Defence in 2013. The trajectory of history turned to Berlin. In her father's day, the country was polarized under the control of Willy Brandt and the Red Army Faction in Germany, while Ursula's Germany was based on great consensus and moral confidence, almost to the point of smugness. Berlin is now the London of the 1970s, full of dirty clubs, artists and fugitives.
But within the ministries, the European element has faded. In the era of Bonn as the capital, the department was procedural, while in the Berlin era, they were happy to go with the flow. The country has been reunified, the strategic goals have been achieved in depth, and trade with China has flourished. Germany has no geopolitical goals to achieve, and this can only be achieved through stronger commissions. The logic of national interest that prompted the West German government to accept the euro no longer applied to eurobonds needed for the euro to function. Building a deeper coalition is no longer the ruling proposition of the German ruling class.
Ursula pushed the Defense Ministry, where its staff were mostly men and perhaps the toughest job in Berlin, which has become a graveyard for German ministers and a media spotlight. Von der Leyen then fell into the lowest trough. Decades of neglect have left militaries in tatters and panic, unable to meet even their most basic international commitments. There was plenty of corruption, procurement scandals, mismanagement and festering far-right forces in the barracks. Determined to change the status quo, von der Leyen opted instead for the most popular approach today, the introduction of the revolution promised by management consultants and McKinsey contracts. Carlo Masala, a professor of international politics at Germany's Federal University, who often works at the Ministry of Defence, said: "She leads the Ministry of Defence through a team of a small number of outsiders. One former consultant said: "She is happy to disrupt the existing structure. ”
The results were unsuccessful. Like the Merke era when Germany led Europe, there were pompous speeches, scandals and disgruntled officers everywhere. Nothing to come up with. At the Ministry of Defense, she became synonymous with Germany's substantive problems, with a growing gap between the campaign slogan of "supporting European armies" and actual investment in European defense. A source said: "The Defence Ministry is torturing her. "By 2019, the defense minister's biography had tried to include the progress of a candidate prime minister, but there were no ends to the success. Her career was declining.
There is a joke in the Bundestag: What is the abbreviation for "von der Leyen"? I-c-h, or "me." But what was Von der Leyen's belief? The question left European officials blank in their minds. Few people can portray her worldview. Her reputation in Berlin, especially among journalists, is a big advantage for PR. Insiders are more lenient. One official said: "She strongly believes in gender equality and supports Europe and transatlanticism. "The German defense minister is a European in the cabinet, which is a return to the idealism of his father's party.
In July 2019, Emmanuel Macron returned to France from Brussels with an idea. Negotiations on the election of the European Commission's president have been blocked. Macron argues that the "primary candidate (Spitzenkandidat)[7]" system has collapsed. Under this system, the various groups in the European Parliament conduct their own election campaigns and nominate for the presidency. The European People's Party, with the CDU and CSU at its core, nominated Manfred Weber, but Macron rejected the nomination, believing the politically insignificant Bavarian a better fit for Munich's political scene. The European People's Party also opposed Frans Timmermans, a Dutchman affiliated with the European Socialist Party. Negotiations are deadlocked.
At this point, Ursula's name surfaced. Merkel has mentioned her to French officials. First as a possible candidate for NATO's secretary-general, and later as the EU's high representative for the leadership of foreign affairs in Brussels. Macron thinks she is trustworthy, he knows Merkel likes her, and he knows she belongs to the CDU. A senior official said: "No one expected such an outcome at the beginning of the nomination. Von der Leyen did not expect her career to be saved by Macron.
Now, Merkel and Von der Leyen text each other on a daily basis. In Berlin, Merkel is filling the vacancy for the presidency; in Brussels, Ursula briefs Merkel. They spoke regularly, as if Ursula von der Leyen had never left the cabinet. They are a politicized generation, and these European women are no longer excluded from power, but this phenomenon is not the norm. However, the comings and goings between the two German women fit Macron's plan. For a decade, France's economy has been in turmoil and its exports to Asia have lagged behind. Macron needs a stronger European Commission to borrow from Germany.
Germany is aware of this and has been restricting French proposals, increasingly looking to the Commission as a defense lawyer for its debtor countries. Macron's risky assumption that grafting Merkel's system into EU headquarters would unleash Berlin's trust in institutions and thus empower them. He was convinced that the presence of Germans in the European Commission would arouse the interest of the German chancellor. For more than a decade, there has been a strategy of bringing in more senior German officials to better steer the commission in the direction in which Germany's interests lie. Von der Leyen's inauguration was the culmination of the strategy.
But for Brussels, it's not a joy. The privatized, Predominantly French-speaking European Commission of the time of von der Leyen's father has disappeared. Today, the Berlemont Mansion is an english-speaking, international turf that de Gaulle derided as "some sort of Esperanto or Volapük".[8] The atmosphere made von der Leyen and the two senior media advisers she brought from Berlin a head start. One source said: "She is overly dependent on the Germans. Others said, "She's stubborn." "It reflects a consensus that von der Leyen's career, which still appears on late-night German talk shows, is still falling."
But the traditional wisdom in Brussels also lies in the commission. A former official said: "Juncker believes von der Leyen is establishing a system in which the European Commission directly leads the Council. "It is said that since France and the Netherlands voted down European constitutions in 2005, the European Commission has continued to decline in power at the expense of the leaders of the countries in the European Council.
Covid-19 has changed everything. At first, it seemed that von der Leyen and even the European Union itself could be the victims of the outbreak. With social distancing orders in effect, early warning drones patrolling the streets of Brussels while EU officials pulled out of headquarters, fears gripped those working remotely via laptops.
COVID-19 has not only brought about a medical crisis, but also a political crisis, which inevitably leads to a crisis in the euro. Clearly, the cost of the lockdown could plunge Italy into a vicious circle of debt, fiscal austerity and populism, with weaker economies in the South angry at the EU. An EU minister said: "I have never seen Euroscepticism rise so dangerously. Multiple polls show that about half of Italians are in favor of leaving the EU, up from less than a third two years ago. Paris and Berlin are engaged in complex competition over how to pay for the crisis. Obviously, the only answer is to increase borrowing. But does that lead to a win-win? Will the bond-buying program implemented by the European Central Bank perpetuate limited debt invisibility or will it be rejected by the German Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe? Few expect von der Leyen to provide answers.
Macron put von der Leyen in the position he expected. But at first he didn't look like he would succeed. As the coronavirus ravaged France, Italy and Spain, France demanded that Germany pay off the crisis with Italy, Spain and six other eurozone countries by implementing a common debt. This shocked Germany. As a result, Germany's doors in Brussels were closed, and several members faced the risk of bankruptcy. Merkel flatly refused because the common debt had been a warning line for Germany.
However, the situation has changed as the worst-case scenario for COVID-19 seems to have avoided Germany. A proposal that was originally conceived to be supported only by some members of the Berlemont Building was taken over by the finance ministers and civil servants of Spain and France. This was done to allow the Commission to borrow heavily in its own name and then provide one-time loans and grants to the most affected Member States. Berlin suddenly fell in love with the proposal.
Macron's gamble was a success. Merkel can work with such a European Commission because one thing that distinguishes Von der Leyen from Juncker and Prodi is that she can be trusted. The photo of Macron shaking hands with Merkel does not include von der Leyen. It doesn't matter though, because it has nothing to do with her. France and Germany have reached a consensus that it is in their interest to have an economically mandated commission. A European Commission official said: "Since Jacques Delors, we now have the opportunity to achieve far more than ever before. Germany's leadership over Europe suddenly regained direction, consolidating its "frugal" side. So in the phone conversation between Macron, Merkel and the pretending President of the European Council, Charles Michel, von der Leyen suddenly and unexpectedly appeared.
This breakthrough is historic, but so far the main reason is the historical development it heralds. Covid-19 has won a series of victories for the commission, such as billions of dollars in common debt, common spending and the door to actual co-taxation. And these were unimaginable months ago. But while the EU budget has almost doubled, the total amount is still not enough. Italy's grants are likely to account for only 0.6% of annual GDP over the next three years. That's because it's not altruism that rings the alarm bells but the national interest. In order to save Germany's EU export market, Merkel once again chose the means necessary to save the euro, but this is not the most necessary means of reform. Not all the bickering is all about Eurobonds. Only part of the European debt that can alleviate the burden on southern European countries is common.
The mood in Brussels now is mixed with an atmosphere of victory. The conversation about von der Leyen was extremely rosy and far from March. One commissioner said: "She will listen". Another official said: "She takes speeches very seriously. Another said: "We have seen her more times in four months than we have seen Juncker in four years." Her bedroom at headquarters was like a Napoleon's camp bed installed next to her office, allowing her to get into working order within minutes. This is no longer ridiculed. The euphoria comes not from the fiscal figures themselves, but from a harbinger that while Macron and Merkel may be shuttling back and forth to a new super-commission, the ultimate head of European finance is still here. Alarm bells have sounded, and the button of shared debt will continue to be pressed again and again in times of crisis until the Berlemont Mansion becomes the heart of the fiscal union.
But will it develop that way? Will Europeans really witness the European Commission's newly acquired powers driving economic recovery over the next three years? After the European Parliament voted for von der Leyen, the room erupted in joyful applause, after which members of Parliament stood up and shook hands with the new president. Former Lower Saxony Governor David McAllister suddenly stepped forward to hug her and said, "You know what? Your father can see you now! ”
Von der Leyen smiled. On his deathbed, Ernst Albrecht was asked if he had failed at something. The old man replied, "Everyone fails at some point in their lives. I spent seventeen years working with all my might for the unification of Europe. And today I found out that I had failed. ”
Ursula spent her life as a daughter, successor, and alternate prime minister, but never herself. Her political career was accompanied by a constant crisis in Europe, and the careers of her father's generation were in jeopardy. Now, for her and the committee she leads, the wheel of history has turned, and this is a rare opportunity to reinvent power.
France and Germany have nodded. The Council of Europe inside the Europa Tower is led by a unique Belgian figure. The coronavirus is like a rescue package, and if von der Leyen can take advantage of it, the power that has been dwindling since Delors is expected to return to the European Commission. But only if she can hold on tightly. Suddenly, neither Merkel nor her father could show her the way. Now, it all depends on her. Whether she and the European Commission will fail, it's all up to her. Few times in politics have such an exhilarating and frightening moment.
[6] The former Federal President of Germany, the second president of Merkel's government, and currently the youngest president of Germany to date.
[7] Each group elects a "prime candidate", with the candidate with the largest number of seats elected to the post of President of the European Commission.
[8] Volapük is an artificial language based on English, French, German, Latin, etc., invented by John Schneier in 1880.
翻译文章：Ben Judah , The rise of Mrs Europe, The Critic, October 20, 2020 Issue.
Network Links: https://thecritic.co.uk/issues/october-2020/the-rise-of-mrs-europe/
Translator Introduction
Dong Luyao
Dong Luyao, a graduate student of constitutional law and administrative law at Shanghai Normal University, is currently a member of the Compilation Group of The Law and Italian Reading Group.
Technical Editor: Li Xu
Editor-in-Charge: Xu Mengyao