It’s not the first time Ursula von der Leyen has made a complete mess of things
Ursula von der Leyen, the EU Commission President, is increasingly coming under fire as anger grows over the EU’s botched vaccine programme. European countries tasked the EU with procuring vaccines on their behalf yet this has turned out to be a huge mistake.
Other countries, such as the United States, UK and Israel, ordered more doses and did so months earlier which goes a long way to explaining why they have been more successful in vaccinating their populations than countries within the EU. It is absurd: on vaccine procurement, von der Leyen was extremely tight-fisted and did not want to spend more than €2.7 billion – despite the fact that the EU, in parallel, approved €750 billion of spending to help mitigate the impact of the coronavirus crisis across the continent.
Her bungling of efforts to combat the Covid-19 pandemic is by no means her first high-profile failure. Von der Leyen was defense minister from 2013 to 2019 and she left chaos in her wake.
Of Germany’s 128 Eurofighters, for example, just 39 were operational. And of the military’s 72 CH-53 heavy transport helicopters, a mere 16 were ready for action. In fact, only around one third of the Bundeswehr’s new tanks, fighter jets and helicopters were fit for active service. Around the world, eyebrows were frequently raised as German ministers arrived late for international conferences and meetings because German military aircraft were so unreliable. In December 2019, Chancellor Angela Merkel arrived at a G20 meeting 12 hours late and missed large parts of the programme.
At the presentation of the Bundeswehr’s annual report in 2018, Hans-Peter Bartels, the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Armed Forces, said: “There is large-scale mismanagement in all areas.” According to the report, less than half of the army’s major weapons and equipment systems were ready for deployment and there was a widespread shortage of spare parts.
In Germany, it is said that von der Leyen’s appointment as EU Commission president saved her. On the domestic stage, her political career was definitely at an end as a result of her repeated failings. Yet Angela Merkel has always stood by her. And von der Leyen has always been loyal to Merkel, who has been strongly criticised in Germany for her refugee policy.
Before switching to Brussels, von der Leyen was summoned to appear before a parliamentary inquiry. The investigative committee was looking into dozens of cases in which the minister’s employees allegedly broke strict procurement laws by directly awarding contracts to suppliers – without any form of tendering. Auditors from the Federal Audit Office uncovered a series of violations and in August 2018 identified “infringements that the ministry had accepted and even promoted with approval.” In most cases, the ministry had failed to examine or demonstrate the necessity or cost-effectiveness of hundreds of millions of euros worth of contracts allocated to external consultants.
Above all it is clear that von der Leyen repeatedly got her policy priorities completely wrong.
She surprised her generals by organising fashion shows in the ministry of defense. Why? Because she wanted to introduce maternity uniforms for pregnant female soldiers. A total of 500 uniforms in various sizes and designs were tested — from field uniforms to service dress uniforms and tights. Some 80 volunteers had tested and evaluated the new uniforms, rating them on a range of criteria, including appearance, comfort and breathability. Prior to von der Leyen’s initiative, female soldiers had been required to wear civilian clothes once the uniforms got too small to fit over their baby bumps.
Almost immediately after taking office, von der Leyen announced that her goal was to improve childcare for military personnel, hire childminders and make the army’s childcare facilities more attractive. A total of €100 million in funding was approved for her new policy initiative. “The military needs a more flexible childcare system,” said von der Leyen, who had previously been Minister of Family Affairs. “We need to increase the involvement of childminders, especially for out-of-hours childcare. After all, childminders offer a particularly flexible form of childcare and we have the enormous advantage that there is room to provide childcare in many barracks.”
In a major white paper, von der Leyen outlined precisely how she aimed to change the culture within the Bundeswehr. She announced that her priorities included diversity and equal opportunities. There would be an increased focus on “diversity management” and “intercultural competence and multilingualism” in order to attract more women, immigrants and people with different sexual orientations to military roles, and to increase the number of older people, followers of different religions and disabled people in the ranks. This, she said, was a high priority issue. Von der Leyen also organised special workshops for the troops on “dealing with sexual identity and sexual orientation in the Bundeswehr.” Critics accuse her of focusing on issues of minor importance and losing sight of what really matters.
As a result of years of chronic underfunding, the Bundeswehr was already in a bad state when von der Leyen took office. But far from delivering improvements, the situation actually deteriorated in every year of her leadership. Bartels criticised von der Leyen for promising again and again to turn things around and repeatedly failing to do so: “I would like to be able to report that it’s spring and the dark days of winter are behind us. But the truth is, it’s still winter.”
Rainer Zitelmann is the author of “The Rich in Public Opinion” and “The Power of Capitalism.”