European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen put women in many of the top roles of her new team in her next five-year tenure at the head of the bloc on Tuesday after many EU member states had been reluctant to live up to her demand for gender parity.
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Von der Leyen put six women among the eight top positions in her team. She and foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas were already agreed on by government leaders, but she added Spanish Socialist Teresa Ribero to lead the green transition on top of becoming the competition and antitrust tsar. Three other women were also named as vice presidents.
After French heavyweight Thierry Breton resigned and openly criticised von der Leyen for allegedly “questionable governance” on Monday, von der Leyen gave former Prime Minister Stephane Sejourne the industrial portfolio.
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It left France with a strong voice in the Commission, and many saw Breton’s shock resignation more as a removal by von der Leyen of one of her most open internal critics after exerting pressure on French authorities.
Compounding such problems was the defiance of many of the 27 member states as von der Leyen struggled to get anywhere close to gender parity on her Commission team – they staunchly refused to give her a choice between a male and a female candidate.