| European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s CDU party announced today (19 February) her candidacy as the Spitzenkandidat for the European elections and, according to a well-choreographed scenario, the EPP congress in Bucharest on 6 March will make official her bid to succeed herself as Commission chief. The big question is why the EPP thinks von der Leyen will inspire voters. As the outgoing Commission president, could she realistically promise anything else but more of the same? Apart from the new EU commissioner for defence that she touted in Munich this weekend. If Europeans are happy about the state of the union, they should vote enthusiastically for von der Leyen and the voter turnout, which was 50.66% in 2019, should skyrocket. But the problem is that Europeans are hardly content with how our Union has responded to their expectations and everyday needs. No matter what official statistics say, most Europeans feel their living standards are declining due to daily inflation and rising prices. They are worried about their jobs and about insecurity, which they often blame, fairly or not, on illegal immigration. Most Europeans believe that the Eurocrats live in an ivory tower, that they don’t understand the hardships of ordinary citizens, and that they pursue ideological goals such as the Green Deal without thinking about their impact on ordinary people. | 
