|
| A weekly newsletter zooming in on Europe through local perspectives. Every Friday, one topic explored by five independent newsrooms. | | IN THIS ISSUE | §01 · In focus — Ursula von der Leyen, Queen of the EU?
§02 · The local view — Berlin, Riga, Warsaw, Vienna and Zagreb
§03 · The podcast — Listen to the latest episode and join the conversation
§04 · From the newsrooms — Recent reporting from the lensEU network |
|
|
| §01 · IN FOCUS | Ursula von der Leyen, Queen of the EU? | After seven years at the helm of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen is a walking paradox. Internally, no Commission President in recent history has managed to centralise so much power like she has. In an institution that is proud of its decades-long acumen in shaping policy, not a single decision is taken today without the President's seal of approval (or rather, her mighty head of cabinet's, Björn Seibert). The presidentialisation of the Commission, which begun almost two decades ago under José Manuel Barroso, has reached its apogee. | Yet externally, von der Leyen is weaker than most of her predecessors. She lacks both political inventiveness and the sly negotiating skills to get difficult legal files over the finish line. And while predecessors like Mario Monti or Jacques Delors had the explicit backing of Berlin (or, back in the days, Bonn) and Paris to come forward with bold reforms, neither the French President nor the German chancellor seem to be able to agree on a common European project the von der Leyen Commission could act as a vector for. | Her recent State of the European Union address in Strasbourg in front of the European Parliament's plenary on September 17th was a case in point. Rich in rhetorical flourishes, yet poor in substance. Von der Leyen said many interesting and new things. But the interesting things weren't new, and the new things weren't interesting. Her proposal to offer Canada an "associated membership" to the EU added only confusion. In place of coming forward with specific political projects the Union and Canada could unite around (an integrated critical raw materials value chain, for example, as suggested by Prime Minister Mark Carney the day after von der Leyen's speech), the President stayed vague and elusive. | Europe's Queen, it seems, is basking in her regal aura. She's not so sure what to do with it, however. | — Oliver Grimm EU correspondent, Die Presse |
|
|
| | |
| | Riga · Latvia · TVNET | Ursula von der Leyen Through Latvia’s Eyes | For people in Latvia, Ursula von der Leyen remains a prominent but polarising figure. According to a February 2025 survey by Latvia's SKDS Market and Public Opinion Research Centre, 42% of the country's population viewed von der Leyen positively. Almost as many, 40%, expressed a negative opinion. | At the same time, the European Union in Latvia is by no means associated with von der Leyen alone. "Brussels" also has a local face - former Latvian prime minister Valdis Dombrovskis, who has worked at the European Commission since 2014 and is currently responsible for economy and productivity, as well as implementation and simplification. For the Latvian public, he remains one of the most recognisable representatives of the EU bureaucracy. | Positive attitudes towards von der Leyen in Latvia are more often linked to security issues - support for Ukraine, a tough stance towards Russia and increased attention to the EU's eastern flank. Criticism more often focuses on the Green Deal, bureaucracy and excessive regulation. | Security on the continent was also one of the main themes of the State of the Union, von der Leyen's annual address as European Commission President to the European Parliament. Latvian public broadcaster LSM particularly highlighted her proposal to create a European equivalent of NATO's Article 4 - a mechanism for a joint response to cyberattacks, sabotage and drone incursions. | Dombrovskis has already said that von der Leyen's new security initiatives are particularly important for countries on the EU's eastern flank. He specifically highlighted the idea of a European Security Council, an emergency protocol and the development of strategic defence capabilities. At the same time, some Latvian politicians criticised the speech for paying insufficient attention to the Baltic region. | So in Latvia, von der Leyen is more often seen not as the "Queen of Europe", but as one of the EU's main political faces - especially when the discussion concerns Russia, Ukraine and the security of Europe's eastern borders. | — Andrejs Timofejevs, journalist, TVNET GRUPA |
|
|
|
|
| | Warsaw · Poland · OKO.press | In Poland, Views of von der Leyen Follow Party Lines | Ursula von der Leyen is one of the most polarizing foreign political figures in Poland. At the same time her recognition is exceptionally high: in a February 2026 CBOS survey, only 7% of respondents said they did not know who she was, compared with 10% for Emmanuel Macron, 11% for Viktor Orbán, 28% for Giorgia Meloni and 55% for Keir Starmer. Yet only 31% of Poles expressed trust in von der Leyen, against 43% who distrusted her. | Political affiliation strongly shaped these attitudes. On a scale from –5 (deep distrust) to +5 (full trust), von der Leyen scored +2.01 among Civic Coalition (KO) voters and +0.40 among New Left supporters, compared with –3.15 among PiS voters, –3.67 among Confederation WiN supporters and –4.13 among Confederation of the Polish Crown supporters.
A July 2026 United Surveys by IBRiS poll for Wirtualna Polska confirmed this divide: 39% trusted von der Leyen and 59.2% did not. While roughly seven in ten government-coalition voters (69%) trusted her, only one in twenty opposition voters (5%) did, with 89% of the latter expressing distrust.
Attitudes towards von der Leyen are therefore strongly structured by political affiliation: supporters of Civic Coalition (KO) and its coalition partners view her much more positively than supporters of PiS or the two Confederation groupings.
Reactions to von der Leyen’s September 2026 State of the Union address further illustrate this polarization. The speech received sharply contrasting responses from Polish MEPs, broadly reflecting the divide between the governing coalition and the opposition. | — Paulina Pacuła, journalist, OKO.press |
|
|
|
|
| | Vienna · Austria · Die Presse | The value of von der Leyen’s promises | In her State of the European Union address, Ursula von der Leyen announced numerous, albeit vague, initiatives in the fields of energy, banking, defence and migration. On artificial intelligence, she is relying on self-regulation by the industry. She has offered Canada “associate membership” of the EU. | Faster electrification of Europe’s energy supply, a new air defence system called ‘Freya’ for Ukraine, an emergency protocol for Russian hybrid attacks and one against the politically driven use of migrant flows: In her sixth annual State of the Union address, Ursula von der Leyen outlined a number of EU projects already in the pipeline and emphasised their urgency. Reading between the lines, the President of the European Commission indicated on several occasions that her patience with the US under Donald Trump is running out. | Russia’s war of annihilation against Ukraine is also exacerbating the threat to Europe. “The threats facing Europe are becoming less and less hybrid and less and less mere threats,” warned von der Leyen. “Our systems were designed for a different world. They were shaped by well-meaning attempts at consensus and compromise,” she added. “But we must ask ourselves whether they are still fit for purpose.” | Canada is a cornerstone of the international alliance of like-minded states that von der Leyen wishes to rally around the EU. Prime Minister Mark Carney was seated in the plenary chamber as a guest of honour, and von der Leyen told him that she “would like to work with you towards Canada becoming the EU’s first associated member.” Exactly what this status would entail remained unclear. Broadly speaking, her aim is to bind Canada as closely as possible to the EU without upsetting US President Trump or damaging relations with the United Kingdom. | — Oliver Grimm, EU correspondent, Die Presse |
|
|
|
|
| | Zagreb · Croatia · Telegram.hr | A perception shaped by the two most powerfull politicians | Zoran Milanović is not known for his subtlety. "The Commission President should be dealing with the quality of wine and mushroom sanitation controls," the President of the Republic asserted in September 2025, commenting on the State of the Union address delivered a few days earlier by Ursula von der Leyen in the European Parliament.
This was not the first time the Croatian president spoke so undiplomatically about the President of the European Commission: when it comes to Ursula von der Leyen, Milanović’s vocabulary is very similar to that of the Euroskeptic populist right in the EU. Given that polls show Milanović is one of the more popular politicians in Croatia, his discourse inevitably shapes the wider public perception of Ursula von der Leyen.
On the other hand, there is Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, who belongs to the same political family—the European People's Party (EPP)—as the current Commission President. The Croatian public perceives Plenković as a politician close to the so-called "Brussels" establishment led by Ursula von der Leyen, and as her loyal ally in the European Council. This also influences the general perception of the Commission President among the Croatian public.
However, answering the question of whether citizens like her or not is not simple. There are no polls on the subject, nor any surveys that would show her approval rating among Croatian citizens. A simplified picture would look like this: if you are a fan of Plenković, Ursula von der Leyen is an important Croatian ally in Brussels; if you are a fan of Milanović, the Commission President is just an unelected Eurocrat. | Nevertheless, public engagement with news involving the Commission President suggests that Ursula von der Leyen has managed to become highly recognizable and highly visible to the Croatian public. This is a surprising achievement in a country where even some domestic politicians have struggled to become household names.
— Irena Frlan Gašparović, journalist, Telegram.hr |
|
|
|
|
| §03 · THE PODCAST | Is Ursula von der Leyen the Queen of the EU? | She commands Europe's biggest political machine from an office few EU citizens could find on a map, and even fewer voted for. In episode 13 of LensEU, we ask how much power the Commission President has actually gathered in Brussels, and what four very different countries make of her. | |
|
|
| Die Presse's EU correspondent Oliver Grimm doesn't hold back: inside the Commission, he says, decisions run through her office and her chief of staff "possibly the most powerful bureaucrat within the commission." Yet paradoxically, he argues, she's weaker than she looks, because she rarely dares to cross Berlin. "That's a tension that is not good for Europe," he says. | In Croatia, journalists Irena Frlan Gašparović and Jasmin Klarić from the outlet Telegram show how little the debate is actually about her: President Zoran Milanović has dismissed her as an unelected bureaucrat who should "focus on the quality of wine and the sanitary control of mushrooms," while Prime Minister Andrej Plenković counts among her closest allies in the European Council. | In Poland, Paulina Pacuła of the independent investigative outlet OKO.press finds the same pattern: trust in von der Leyen splits almost entirely along government and opposition lines. | And in Berlin, Nicolai von Ondarza of the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik explains why her old image as "Merkel's woman" barely holds up anymore, and why her own party, the CDU, has become one of her sharper critics. | Four countries, four very different Ursula von der Leyens. Listen now. |
| | | | | | |
| | |
|
