Unlike Barroso, Von der Leyen was an “excellent president” – “just compare”, says Costa

António Costa’s praise for the president of the community executive preceded the nomination, on Saturday morning, of Nicolas Schmit as the candidate of the European socialists for the presidency of the European Commission

The Prime Minister, António Costa, considered this Friday that Ursula von der Leyen, from the European People’s Party (PPE), was an “excellent president of the Commission”, as opposed to Durão Barroso, another president of the community executive who came from the right. .

“In these five years, Ursula von der Leyen has been an excellent president of the European Commission. It felt good to not only represent his political family, but also all those who supported his election, his program”, said António Costa, upon entering a dinner with his German counterpart, Olaf Scholz, and other European socialist leaders, in Pomegranate.

The Prime Minister considered that with Von der Leyen’s European Commission it was possible to take “very important steps, under the leadership of the socialists, in the area of ​​combating climate change, in the area of ​​cohesion, economic and social policy”.

“It was with her [Ursula von der Leyen] that we faced together one of the most difficult moments perhaps since the Second World War, which was the pandemic […]just compare what happened in this von der Leyen Commission with what had happened with the Barroso Commission, during the sovereign debt crisis to see how this time it was quite different”, he highlighted.

António Costa, as a PS activist, belongs to the European political family of Socialists & Democrats (S&D).

Ursula von der Leyen and José Manuel Durão Barroso, former social democratic prime minister, belong to the PPE.

António Costa’s praise for the president of the community executive preceded the nomination, on Saturday morning, of Nicolas Schmit as the European socialists’ candidate for the presidency of the European Commission.

Schmit is part of von der Leyen’s team as Commissioner for Employment and Social Rights and is the only name for “spitzenkandidaten” – the name for the candidate for the presidency of the Commission – who is going to vote at the congress of the European Socialist Party (PES).