16.09.2024 Today European Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton announced that he was resigning with immediate effect, saying that President Ursula von der Leyen had asked Emmanuel Macron to proposer another candidate for the job.

“I am resigning from my position as European Commissioner, with immediate effect,” announced Thierry Breton in a letter to Ursula von der Leyen published on the social network X. Officially Emmanuel Macron’s candidate, he explained that the president, who is in the process of forming the European executive team for a new five-year term, had “asked France to withdraw his name.”

“A few days ago, in the final stretch of negotiations on the composition of the future College, you asked France to withdraw my name – for personal reasons that you never discussed directly with me – and proposed, as a political compromise, a portfolio supposedly more influential for France within the future College” of commissioners, wrote Thierry Breton.

“It is another candidate who will be proposed to you” by France, he added.

“Over the past five years, I have worked tirelessly to defend and advance the common good of Europe, beyond national and partisan interests. It has been an honour,” the former French minister stressed.

“However, in light of the latest developments – which once again demonstrate questionable governance – I must conclude that I can no longer exercise my functions within the College,” he concluded.

Relations between the German leader and Breton had been notoriously strained since the latter took the lead in the spring of a revolt within the Brussels executive to contest the president’s leadership style, which was deemed to be lacking collectiveness.

The French commissioner had publicly questioned von der Leyen’s ethics after the appointment at the end of January of an envoy responsible for small and medium-sized enterprises, a highly paid position within the Commission.

The position had been awarded to German MEP from the European People’s Party (right) Markus Pieper, a few weeks before a congress in Bucharest in early March during which the EPP had given its support to a second term for von der Leyen. The controversy had led Pieper’s withdrawal.