She might have gone to the same European school as Boris Johnson but the new EU president, staunch federalist and mother-ofseven Ursula von der Leyen, couldn’t be a more different political animal
Lower Saxony, where her father became prime minister of the region from 1976 to 1990. With such an international upbringing it is no surprise she is an accomplished linguist. Later she studied medicine at Hanover Medical School, graduating in 1987, but stayed there to work in the women’s clinic. After the birth of twins she moved to the United States when her husband got a position in medicine at Stanford University. On their return to Germany she taught at the Hanover Medical School until 2002, where a storm later raged over claims of cheating in her doctoral dissertation. An independent investigation cleared her but she admitted she had failed to attribute key quotes that featured in her introduction and later said: “Parts of my work fell beneath the standards I set myself.”
When her child was switched medicine politics. Although she joined the CDU in 1990, it was not until 2003 that she was elected to the Parliament of Lower Saxony, where she served a minister for social as youngest two, she from local to affairs, women, family and health. Two years later, Mrs Merkel made her federal minister for youth and family affairs.
Elected to the Bundestag in 2009, she became federal minister for labour and social affairs, increasing the number of childcare nurseries, pushed for more women to be on companies’ boards and speaking up for gay marriage and a minimum wage. She was promoted to defence minister in 2013.
Yet however much mud is thrown at her, very little appears to stick.
SMILEY and warm, she is the darling of talk shows and has shown a strong ability to find middle-ground in prickly discussions.
It is likely that as EU president she will continue with her quest to try to stop child pornography on the internet and fight for more women to be given top jobs in companies.
She has said she is in favour of a European army and has not shied away from getting involved in
foreign conflicts. She approved sending German arms to support Kurdish and Iraqi security forces.
Dr von der Leyen also seeks closer links with Saudi Arabia, but during a visit to the country she chose not to wear a hijab, saying: “It annoys me when women are pushed to wearing the abaya [Islamic cloak].”
That stubborn streak was also evident in her comments over Brexit. After the UK’s decision to leave the EU, she noted that Britain had “paralysed” European ambitions for a more closely linked security policy. Her frustration was clear when she added that the UK had “consistently blocked everything with the label Europe on it.”
From what we know already, it seems as though Dr von der Leyen will be happy to say Auf Wiedersehen, UK as she pursues her dreams of a United States of
Europe with its own army and a vibrant liberal centrist ideology. European Council president Donald Tusk is a supporter, who has said: “For me it is also a good sign that a woman will have this office for the first time.”
BELGIUM’S prime minister Charles Michel, 43, has been chosen to replace Tusk when his own term of office ends on December 1, and Christine Legarde, French managing director of the International Monetary Fund, will on November 1 be the first female to head the European Central Bank. The winds of change are clearly blowing hard through Europe, though it may be too early to say what impact this new team and Dr von der Leyen’s leadership will have on Brexit.