angela merkel

Macron wishes Merkel as EU Commission President

French President has reservations about Manfred Weber. Now he proposes another “strong personality” as the successor to Jean-Claude Juncker.

French President Emmanuel Macron would vote for Angela Merkel as EU Commission President. “If she wanted to do it, I would support her,” he told the French-speaking Swiss TV channel RTS. The European Union needed “someone strong” behind the wheel, but he would not try to influence it, he said, referring to their friendship.

But with his proposal, Macron will hardly prevail: Merkel herself had ruled out in May that they take over after the end of their chancellorship at EU level, a top office. She supports the CSU politician Manfred Weber as the successor to Jean-Claude Juncker at the head of the European Commission.

“Europe needs faces, strong personalities, it needs people who have personal credibility and the skills to fill the posts,” Macron said, reiterating his reservations about Weber, the leading candidate of the European People’s Party (EPP). “No one knows this leading candidate,” said France’s head of state, using the German word for it.

One should not be afraid to raise a charismatic person in a European top position, so Macron. “In life – as I try to do, with my staff – you always have to recruit people who are stronger than you. Because they make you better because they push you.”

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