Ivanka Trump meets with German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen. February 15, 2019. Photo courtesy of U.S. Embassy Berlin.
At The American Conservative, Bill Wirtz describes the coming European Commission regime, headed by newly installed Ursula von der Leyen as one that will “crack down on people’s personal freedoms, regulate the economy even further, overtax consumers, and distort energy and food prices. Its radical agenda will hurt all Europeans alike.” Not to worry though, von der Leyen has insisted on gender balance within her freedom-crushing cabinet. Wirtz writes (abridged):
The newly appointed head of the European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union, is former German defense minister Ursula von der Leyen. She has now presented her cabinet, and every EU member state has suggested one commissioner, dividing up the 27 portfolios to each country. Von der Leyen had insisted on gender balance (50/50 men and women), though she gave few other clues as to who would be included in her Brussels top team. Yet the release of the names revealed a set of curious choices.
Frans Timmermans (Netherlands) is very unpopular in Poland and Hungary, against which he led an EU crusade during the last Commission term. He will be in charge of “creating a European Green Deal.
Margrethe Vestager (Denmark, and no, it isn’t pronounced the way it reads) spent her last term battling American tech giants in court, in an attempt to cash in as much as possible from their profits. The “tax lady,” as Donald Trump has dubbed her, will continue in her portfolio. (Trump also said of her: “She hates the United States perhaps worse than any person I’ve ever met.”)
The next European Commission (if approved by the European Parliament, which it will be) will crack down on people’s personal freedoms, regulate the economy even further, overtax consumers, and distort energy and food prices. Its radical agenda will hurt all Europeans alike.
These are the things worth being outraged about. The fact that a bureaucratic name has drawn so much consternation shows everything that’s wrong with the EU’s superficial and dogmatic brand of politics.
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