Brussels 20.02.2024 The president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen has announced her interest in the second mandate.

The decision was made on February 19 in the afternoon at the meeting of Germany’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which supported her intention in unanimity.

“The world today is completely different than it was in 2019. We’ve been through a lot together over the past five years, and I think you could say we’ve accomplished more than we could ever imagine,” von der Leyen said.

“In these five years, not only has my passion for Europe grown but, of course, also my experience of how much this Europe can achieve for its people,” she went on.

“The last five years have been as challenging as they have been extraordinary.”

Further she vowed to “make the centre strong” and defend the bloc “against the divisive forces” from inside and outside.

“I am firmly convinced that this is possible and that we have the strength to do it. And that is the task that I set myself,” she said.

Von der Leyen’s nomination will be confirmed by acclamation in early March during the annual Congress of her political family, the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP). Formally the EPP had set 21 February as the deadline for submitting internal applications, however it will be highly unlikely if the political family will engage into a political race between potential candidates.

The European Parliament approved Ursula von der Leyen as first female Commission President with a slim advantage of 9 votes as a President of the next European Commission in a secret ballot on 16 July.
She took office on 1 November 2019 for a five-year term. There were 733 votes cast, one of which was not valid: 383 members voted in favour, 327 against, and 22 abstained.

Nowadays the President of the European Commission is targeted in a personal capacity for “usurpation of functions and title”, “destruction of public documents”, “illegal taking of interests” and “corruption” in the anti-Covid vaccine affair.

If Ursula von der Leyen is already the subject of administrative complaints, they are all directed to the Commission. For the first time, it is the EU Commission President, in a personal capacity, who is targeted, for acts punishable by the Belgian penal code.

A professional lobbyist, Frédéric Baldan, 35 years old, accredited to the European institutions filed the complaint on April 5, 2023, accompanied by his Parisian lawyer, Me Diane Protat. He has filed a civil suit and is demanding €50,000, estimating that “the behavior of President von der Leyen has damaged Belgium’s public finances and public trust”.

The second publicly known complaint was announced by the Belgian newspaper Le Vif. A Belgian citizen filed a complaint with Liège investigating judge Frédéric Frenay. He criticizes the President of the European Commission for having taken the place “without any mandate” of the 27 States of the European Union, in particular the Belgian government, by negotiating discreetly, even secretly via SMS, purchase contracts for vaccines with the president of Pfeizer laboratories, Albert Bourla.
The Belgian citizen still criticizes Mrs von der Leyen for having deleted SMS messages.