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Shkruar nga Gavin Mortimer
Von der Leyen will introduce some of the measures early next year to make it easier to deport illegal immigrants. This is another indication that Von der Leyen does not pay much attention to Macron.
2024 has been a year to forget for Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz. The German chancellor's government coalition collapsed last month, and on Monday he lost a confidence vote in parliament. New elections will be held in February. France's president has also had electoral challenges, as a result of which Macron has appointed his third prime minister in the last six months, and his approval ratings in the polls have fallen further.
Politically, economically and socially, Germany and France are in crisis, and no one is benefiting more than Ursula von der Leyen. The president of the EU Commission, who was elected in the summer for a second 5-year term, is today the de facto leader of Europe.
In October, Von der Leyen overruled Scholz's opposition to imposing five-year tariffs on Chinese-made electric cars. Macron was in favor of import tariffs (up to 35.3 percent). But a few weeks later, he too withdrew when the EU president went to Uruguay to sign the Mercosur trade agreement with a number of South American countries.
Scholz was satisfied with this occasion. He welcomed the signing of the agreement, which will benefit the car and chemical industry in Germany. Macron was outraged, as were French farmers, who fear the trade deal will impoverish them.
It was the second time in the last three months that Von der Leyen showed the floor to Macron. In September, she told the president to choose a new French EU commissioner as she disliked the current one, Thierry Breton. And Macron did as he was told. This must have been a great humiliation for him.
Because in 2019, he was Von der Leyen's main adviser, and without his support Germany would not have become president of the European Commission. He saw in Mrs. Von der Leyen someone who, like him, shared economic and social liberalism, and most importantly, a woman he would "have in his pocket" because of his support.
At that time, the favorite candidate for the post of president of the European Commission was Manfred Weber. But at the time it was said that his conservative views did not fit with Macron's. Weber had been one of the few prominent German politicians who dared to question Angela Merkel's decision to open Europe's borders in 2015 to immigrants.
"It is inconceivable how hundreds of thousands of refugees are wandering unchecked across Europe," he said at the time. Weber's view is now shared by most governments in the EU.
Only the leaders of Spain and France continue to turn a blind eye to mass migration.
But Macron's approach has angered the French, who are opposed to the unprecedented number of illegal and legal immigrants who have arrived in the country since 2017.
He has broken repeated promises to solve this crisis, as he needs to deport many illegal immigrants. In a 2019 interview, the president assured the French that 100 percent of deportation orders would be implemented very soon.
However, so far this year, this rate is 7 percent, at a time when the EU average is 30 percent. Von der Leyen is said to want to raise this average by 2025, an ambition that is likely to bring her back into conflict with Macron.
He and his centrist MPs are united in their opposition to what have been called "return clauses". Currently, a rejected asylum seeker can stay in the EU country where he arrived, until a deportation order is enforced against him.
However von der Leyen plans to set up centers outside the EU where they can be held until they leave. Macron and his centrists consider such centers inhumane. Giorgia Meloni no. Earlier this year, the Italian prime minister said her aim was "to block departures to Africa, to assess the possibility of opening other transit centers there, to determine who is eligible and who is not to enter Europe". .
Now this approach is also supported by Von der Leyen. In October this year, she wrote a letter to EU leaders to urge them to explore "possible ways around the idea of building return centers outside the EU". Humanitarian organizations were outraged. Amnesty described this proposal as "shameful".
Even Macron called it unpleasant. An Elysee spokesman said he preferred a "regular discussion on the migrant crisis, which respects international and European law". But these objections have been ignored, and Von der Leyen will introduce some of the measures early next year to make it easier to deport illegal immigrants.
This is another indication that Von der Leyen does not pay much attention to Macron. "She was disappointed by his actions" - says an MEP from Von der Leyen's center-right European People's Party. She is particularly horrified by the mismanagement of French finances.
Macron came to power in 2017 promising to overhaul the economy. At the time, the country's budget deficit was 3.4 percent of GDP, and the new president said he would respect the EU's 3 percent limit by the end of that year.
France's current budget deficit is 6.1 percent. This has forced the governor of the Bank of France to warn on Tuesday that "if our country remains in this state...it will risk a gradual economic and European collapse".
Macron has made France ungovernable through his own incompetence, and now threatens to wreak havoc on Europe. Under these conditions, why should it be surprising that Von der Leyen is increasingly leading not only the EU, but also France itself?/ Adapted "Pamphlet" from "The Spectator".
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