Finger-pointing and charges of betrayal follow Goulard’s defeat

Macron demands von der Leyen explain rejection of French nominee.

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Emmanuel Macron and Ursula von der Leyen were betting on an old formula in Brussels: that France is France.

The French president and the Commission president-elect believed that the European Parliament, in deference to Paris, would confirm Sylvie Goulard as a sort of super-commissioner overseeing the EU single market and industrial policy, despite Goulard being a tarnished candidate facing investigations over alleged financial misconduct.

Instead, MEPs rewrote the script. They crushed Goulard’s nomination in a landslide vote on Thursday, and sent a clear message: France is no different than Romania.

In doing so, they have now made it impossible for the new Commission to take office as scheduled on November 1, and they have opened a breach among senior EU leaders that could have far-reaching implications on policy decisions in the years ahead.

The rejection of Goulard so stunned Macron that his European affairs minister, Amélie de Montchalin, on Friday proclaimed her defeat to be “a major institutional crisis” and “a European failure.”

In fact, according to interviews with MEPs, EU officials, and senior aides in Brussels and Paris, the failure was Macron’s and von der Leyen’s — the result of a combination of Franco-German hubris and a lack of understanding of  how things work in the European Parliament.

Despite repeated warnings that Goulard’s nomination was in deep danger, which grew louder after her initial poor performance in a hearing on October 2, von der Leyen seemed not to grasp that Parliament was going to reject the French candidate even after a meeting with parliamentary leaders just minutes before the final vote on Thursday.

One Parliament official said that von der Leyen had adopted a hands-off approach from the beginning — deferring to the judgement of MEPs rather than whipping them to support her package of nominees and the portfolios that she assigned to them.

At a meeting with the conservative European People’s Party group in early September, von der Leyen told MEPs she had warned national leaders that she could not guarantee the outcome of the confirmation process. “I explained to all the governments, these people they need to pass the hearings in the Parliament, and Parliament is the check and balance,” the Parliament official said, paraphrasing von der Leyen’s remarks.

The president-elect, the official said, “was very confident in the process … saying ‘do what you need to do and kill who you need to kill. It’s up to you guys.’ That’s how I understood what she was saying.”

Macron had a different understanding. On Thursday, the French president publicly demanded that von der Leyen explain Goulard’s defeat, saying she had assured him Goulard would have the support of the three main, pro-EU political groups in the Parliament.

On Friday, a French diplomatic official said von der Leyen was betrayed by her own EPP, and that internal German political disputes were spilling over into the EU capital.

“There is a German political crisis, and we can’t ignore it,” the French official said, noting that von der Leyen, an ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel, was chosen over the EPP’s official candidate, Manfred Weber, and that German MEPs from the Social Democratic Party (SPD) were among those who opposed von der Leyen most fiercely during her own confirmation process in July.

“It is the SPD that was the harshest with Mrs. von der Leyen in July,” the French official said. “And today it’s the German EPP and in particular the SPD that wanted to strike against the French commissioner.”

“A lot of MEPs rebelled as much against Sylvie Goulard as through her against Angela Merkel and Ursula von der Leyen,” the French official said, adding: “It’s very much tied to a tension within German political parties that are settling their internal scores by using the European Parliament to strike in a way they wouldn’t in Berlin because they don’t dare breaking the coalition.”

But in Brussels, some EPP officials insisted that German politics was not a factor. They said Macron was primarily responsible for putting forward a nominee with too many skeletons in her closet, and that Goulard sealed her own fate by failing to sufficiently address allegations of misusing Parliament funds, and a high-paid consulting job for which she did little work.

These officials noted that it was not Macron’s first personnel mishap in Brussels. His first choice to lead the liberal Renew Europe group in Parliament, Nathalie Loiseau, abruptly dropped out after fellow MEPs rebelled against her blunt style.

“Macron demonstrates a pretty poor pick in people,” one EU diplomat said.

East-West divide

Macron and von der Leyen also appear to have misread the current political climate, in which there was little tolerance for any appearance of malfeasance, but also a keen desire among MEPs from Central and Eastern Europe to make sure that nominees from their countries were not subjected to tougher scrutiny, or that Western nominees were given an easier path.

Because the confirmation vote was conducted by secret ballot, it is impossible to know exactly how MEPs lined up against Goulard. But one Parliament official said that contrary to the assertions in Paris, the biggest opposition came not from Germany but from countries further east.

“It is the result of the Macron casting mistake and the increasing wave of protests from MEPs from Central, Eastern and Nordic countries who threatened to vote against the whole European Commission if she got through,” the official said.

Goulard, a respected expert on EU affairs, has denied wrongdoing. She said the alleged misuse of funds was a bureaucratic error related to an aide being paid after his contract ended, and Goulard repaid the money, some €45,000, to Parliament. And she said the consulting job with a U.S. think tank was totally legal and fully disclosed in accordance with Parliament’s rules.

But even supporters of Goulard said the details ultimately proved unimportant.

At her first hearing, Goulard had been pressed on why she should be eligible to serve as a commissioner if an investigation of misuse of funds had forced her to resign as French defense minister after just a month in the job. The question was repeated to even more devastating effect during her second hearing by Danish MEP Pernille Weiss.

“We believe that the same high standards should apply for those who occupy public office nationally as well as in the European institutions,” Weiss said.

Goulard stumbled, offering a mealy-mouthed reply, in which she tried to rely on differences in the law in France compared to Denmark or other countries. MEPs said her answer was totally insufficient.

Marie Toussaint, a French MEP from the Greens group who participated in the hearing as a member of the Parliament’s industry committee, said the session intended to give Goulard a second chance had instead proved “catastrophic.”

“Arguing that French standards can’t be applied everywhere,” Toussaint said, noting Goulard’s response to Weiss’ question. “The hearing had not been great but for many that was the last straw.”

The tumult also reflected the new dynamics of a more diverse, divided and fractious Parliament, in which the conservatives and Social Democrats do not have a majority, but also need the votes of the liberals or a mix of others.

An official with the liberal Renew Europe group said that Goulard was partly a victim of her own political group’s decision to reject an offer of a “peace agreement” by which the main parties would support all of the nominees.

“This all started with the non-aggression pact proposed by Weber, which we declined,” the official said.

Appetite for revenge

Macron and von der Leyen also seemed to get blindsided by an appetite for revenge among some MEPs unhappy with the outcome of the EU’s recent leadership sweepstakes — including conservatives who believe Weber should have been the Commission president, and Social Democrats who think the job should have gone to their candidate, Frans Timmermans.

Macron and Merkel, as the EU’s two most powerful national leaders, were seen as most responsible for the final result, in which von der Leyen, who served as a minister in the German government since Merkel first took office, was unexpectedly named to the EU’s top executive post.

EPP officials denied that revenge was a motivator, but in Paris, officials close to Macron said they believe it was a factor — a view shared by many officials in Brussels.

But Goulard’s confirmation vote also seemed to become a proxy for many of the EU’s internal tug-of-wars, especially tensions between East and West resulting from what some officials in new EU countries say is a constant application of double standards.

“Besides political revenge, Goulard’s candidacy became an East-West, small country versus big country fight,” one official from the Socialists & Democrats said.

“If Goulard had been Romanian or Hungarian, she would have been rejected immediately,” the official said, explaining the fury among MEPs from Central and Eastern Europe. “And they wondered why it would be different for them but not for France.”

Commission officials said it is impossible to know how long it would take to name and approve replacements for Goulard, and for the Romanian and Hungarian nominees, who were also rejected.

Officials now predict that von der Leyen and her Commission will take office during the first week of December, at the earliest.

In Brussels, many officials and diplomats spent the day trying to assess the fallout from the stunning developments that left an embarrassed French president pointing a finger at the Commission president-elect that he helped select.

Von der Leyen issued no new statement. Officials close to the transition said the timing of the entire process would now hinge in large part on Romania, where the governing coalition has collapsed. Officials also said that depending on Macron’s choice of a replacement, changes may also be needed to the wide portfolio that had been agreed with Goulard in mind.

One EU diplomat expressed amazement at the political damage to von der Leyen, who is the first Commission president in nearly a quarter-century not to have served as a head of state or government.

“Before even getting started she’s already a lame duck,” the diplomat said.

But an EPP official said that it was wrong for Macron to blame von der Leyen for Goulard’s rejection.

“He proposed her,” the EPP official said. “He should take responsibility for it.”

Jacopo Barigazzi and Laura Kayali contributed reporting.