by Aurelie Pugnet and Theophane Hartmann
Thierry Breton, Internal Market Commissioner also in charge of tech and defence announced his resignation from the European Commission on Monday (16 September), in a last move to question von der Leyen’s right to reign.
Breton had been a Commissioner for the past five years in the college of President Ursula von der Leyen. He was re-nominated as Commissioner by France’s president Emmanuel Macron before the summer.
“You asked France to withdraw my name – for personal reasons that in no instance you have discussed directly with me – and offered, as a political trade-off, an allegedly more influential portfolio for France in the future College,” Breton wrote in a letter addressed to von der Leyen published on social media X.
Von der Leyen has been requesting member states to send women instead of men to achieve parity in her next college of Commissioners.
But Breton, in his resignation letter, accuses her of offering to trade names for more attractive portfolios.
It remains unclear if her call for name change was based on parity issues or on divergences of opinions. It is also unclear whether France will appoint a woman in place of Breton. French former Greens lead-candidate Marie Toussaint asked Macron on X to appoint a woman in place of Breton.
Breton has been at odds with von der Leyen in the past few months. In March he openly criticised her election as lead candidate for the European People’s Party (EPP) ahead of the EU election campaign.
Alongside other Commissioners, he asked her in April to review her decision to appoint Markus Pieper as envoy for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), suggesting her choice of a fellow CDU-affiliate was a political move.
Breton went on to urge X’s owner Elon Musk to comply with the EU’s landmark law on online content moderation (DSA) ahead of Musk’s live-streamed interview with US presidential candidate Donald Trump.
The Commission later confirmed that this decision was taken without previous consultation with the College of Commissioners, and a source linked to von der Leyen’s cabinet told Euractiv she “had never been so mad” for discrediting the DSA’s enforcement. Civil society organisations heavily criticised Breton too.
Von der Leyen’s request for a name change in what Breton assumes is a political move is “further testimony to questionable governance,” he wrote in his resignation letter.
Alongside his letter, he also published a portrait frame with a blank canvas entitled “my official portrait for the next European Commission term.”
It is unclear whether Breton will join France’s incoming government in France, which should be announced this week.
*first published in:Euractiv.com
By: N. Peter Kramer
