TN.cz | Ursula von der Leyen to lead the European Commission again

Ursula von der Leyen will lead the European Commission for another five years. This was decided by MEPs on Thursday, July 18. Von der Leyen received 401 out of 707 valid votes. What determined her election? And what are her main topics? Researcher Zuzana Krulichová from EUROPEUM Institute discussed this on TN.cz.

The election results were quite uncertain until the last moment. Ursula von der Leyen was securing votes up until the final seconds, as evidenced by her speech targeting undecided members of the Green and Conservative factions. Ultimately, she garnered a fairly strong majority. In her previous term, she won by nine votes; this time, it was by 40 votes. So, despite the very uncertain expectations before the election, her victory is strong.

You can watch the full interview here.

Zuzana Krulichová
Research Fellow

Zuzana Krulichová is a research fellow in the Global Europe programme at EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy and PhD student at the Department of European Studies, Charles University. She holds an MA in International Relations from Leiden University and an undergraduate degree in Area Studies from Charles University. Generally, she is interested in EU foreign policy and the role of member states in its development, relations between the EU and Indo-Pacific, and global infrastructure projects, such as the BRI or Global Gateway and non-coercive influence in IR. Before starting the PhD programme, she worked for People in Need.