In the first days of the U.S.-Israel war against Iran, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen assured the bloc’s allies in the Middle East that they “can count on strong European solidarity.”
Spats that have erupted across the bloc in the ten days since have quickly exposed the claim as little more than empty sloganism.
Even the leaders of some of the bloc’s biggest member states are now openly clashing. In particular, Spain’s Socialist government has taken aim at German chancellor Friedrich Merz since he was filmed silently sitting at the White House as Donald Trump threatened to cut off all trade with Madrid over its refusal to cooperate with the military offensive.
Spain’s far-left deputy prime minister Yolanda Díaz on Monday criticised Merz as one of numerous “vassals who pay homage to Trump,” adding that he has “no idea how to manage the historic moment we’re living in.”
It later emerged that the chancellor and Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez have not spoken since the Washington visit, and—according to Merz’s spokesman in conversation with Politico—Merz has attempted to call Sánchez twice but failed to reach him, even leaving a voice message that has so far gone unanswered. Madrid insists this is because Berlin has called the wrong number.
Von der Leyen’s own scramble for relevance within the war in Iran has likewise prompted a furious response across the bloc. Not least her talk on Monday about building “a foreign policy that makes us stronger at home,” to which conservative think tank MCC Brussels responded: “Von der Leyen talks as if she were the self-appointed ruler of Europe, not the chief bureaucrat of the Commission.”
That’s a problem: The EU is not a state, and foreign policy is not hers to proclaim. On the biggest questions, authority must lie with the Europe’s nations.
France’s Rassemblement National president and MEP Jordan Bardella also this week stressed that the Commission president “has never been given a mandate to arrogate diplomatic powers to herself,” adding:
Her interventions in this area amount to ongoing interference and encroach upon the sovereignty of the Member States. It is intolerable to see the European Commission attempt to seize new powers every time a crisis arises!
Michael Curzon is a news writer for europeanconservative.com based in England’s Midlands. He is also Editor of Bournbrook Magazine, which he founded in 2019, and previously wrote for London’s Express Online. His Twitter handle is @MichaelCurzon_.
