Brussels’ Gender Blackmail Leads to Deadlock in Forming New Commission
12th September 2024
Who would have guessed that EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s embarrassing (and frankly, undemocratic) obsession with reaching the desired gender balance in her new cabinet would backfire so spectacularly that it might even cripple the entire formation process? Well, nearly everyone but her, apparently. Coupled with von der Leyen’s biggest weakness, transparency—or the lack thereof—the political storm she stirred up in Slovenia perfectly encapsulates everything that’s wrong with her rule.
As we explained in several articles before, von der Leyen began forming her second Commission by pleading with member states to nominate both male and female candidates for her to choose from, even though the treaties say that should be none of her business. When she inevitably got “a middle finger” from countries instead, as one diplomat put it, she began pressuring smaller and politically weaker member states to change their picks to women by dangling more influential portfolios in front of them if they did.
She did manage to persuade one country—Romania—before the official deadline for nominations came to pass, and later, another one—Slovenia—but only after its initial male candidate, Tomaž Vesel, was locked in and the liberal PM Robert Golob said he was “confident” he was the right man for the job.