Von der Leyen to run for second term as EU Commission president

Europe’s conservatives have backed Ursula von der Leyen for a second term as head of the EU’s executive, sending her into battle with a pledge to curb illegal migration.

A congress in Bucharest formally named Ms von der Leyen as lead candidate of the European People’s Party for EUwide elections in June.

Ms von der Leyen, 65, is running on a platform of defending Europe’s values and security after a turbulent first term as President of the European Commission.

The next five-year term could prove similarly challenging as the war in Ukraine drags on, climate deadlines draw nearer, the far-right jostles for power and Donald Trump plots his comeback in the US.

“This is what we are standing for: Democracy, prosperity, security. We cannot have one without the others,” Ms von der Leyen told delegates in Bucharest, where a 400-89 ballot confirmed her nomination.

A 25-page manifesto for the broad centre-right alliance promises to support Ukraine, as well as expand Europe’s arms production and step up the fight against terrorism and organised crime.

In an eye-catching migration pledge, it proposes a “fundamental change in European asylum law”, so that claims can be processed in third countries. A programme similar to Britain’s Rwanda deportation plan would be legal because there is no “right to freely choose the country of protection”, the manifesto says.

It also calls for EU border agency Frontex to treble its manpower and for all migration to be “comprehensively electronically monitored”.

“It is us, the Europeans, who decide who comes to Europe and under what circumstances, and not the organised crime of smugglers and traffickers,” Ms von der Leyen said.

Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer, one of the leaders speaking in Bucharest, backed the call for asylum procedures in “safe third countries”.

“We must ensure that those who cannot stay in the union are removed,” he said. The party is calling for a more muscular European foreign policy in which sanctions could be passed over the veto of individual members such as Hungary.

It hopes to bring the UK, which left the EU in 2020, into a new “European Security Council” and draw a up a long-term strategy for the Middle East.

Ms von der Leyen is treading a careful line in climate policy by touting her sprawling Green Deal package while assuring the right she prefers “positive incentives” to regulation.

Her party also wants a “digital awakening” that makes the EU a force to be reckoned with in artificial intelligence, alongside the US and China.

With Mr Trump gaining momentum in his bid to return to the White House, Ms von der Leyen is siding with calls for Europe to take more responsibility for its own defence.

The Party of European Socialists, representing the broad centre-left, has chosen Luxembourg’s Nicolas Schmit as its lead candidate for the election, which takes place between June 6 and June 9.

The conservatives are proposing a change in EU asylum law, so that claims can be processed in third countries