The Worst People Prevail When the Merely Bad People Do Nothing

Ursula von der Leyen's EU power grab can only continue because of the EU parliament's failure

Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission that runs the EU has finally faced a long overdue no-confidence vote. Its chances of success, all observers have always agreed, were very small. As predicted, it has now failed. And yet, this was an important moment.

That’s because the single most powerful politician in the EU is not, for instance, German chancellor Friedrich Merz or French president Emmanuel Macron (notwithstanding their own delusions of grandeur), but Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the EU Commission. Because in NATO-EU Europe, the true measure of power now is the ability to spoil whatever sorry remnants of democracy are still standing. And in spite of very tough competition, von der Leyen is the worst, most corrupting spoiler of them all.