The cooperation between Michel and von der Leyen went from bad to worse during their years as the EU's top leaders from 2019 to 2024. When Belgian Michel now speaks to the English-language website Brussels Times, he offers a serious look at how von der Leyen runs her commission.
It is a super-authoritarian leadership. The commissioners have no role anymore, Michel claims, who believes that the German leader is failing on both defense and financial-market issues.
Nothing has been done. In this area, the results are zero and it is a tragedy. I am tough, I am brutal - because I saw it from the inside, Michel says, who resigned in the fall of 2024.
