Von der Leyen emerges from illness to join show of support for Germany’s Merz

The Commission president was briefly hospitalized with a severe bout of pneumonia and has been working remotely from Hannover. She appeared on Friday at the CDU headquarters in Berlin along with nine heads of government and six opposition leaders from her center-right European People’s Party (EPP).

The Commission’s press service said that while recovering she was in “daily contact” with her teams in Brussels, but failed to disclose that she had been taken into hospital until after she returned home.

Von der Leyen is not expected to speak publicly at the two-day event. “It is not abnormal that the European Commission president is not participating” in the press conference, said an EPP official, granted anonymity to speak candidly.

She will, however, sign up to an EPP action plan with the other leaders geared at boosting Merz’s chances at the Feb. 23 election, in which he’s facing off against current center-left Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and far-right candidate Alice Weidel.

For Merz, head of the CDU, the event is a chance to show off his connection to the EU’s most powerful people. For Manfred Weber, chair of the EPP, who is hosting the event and belongs to the CDU’s Bavarian sister party, the CSU, it’s a chance to show Merz his ability to rally support.

In comments to Berlin Playbook, Weber promised a return to German dominance in Brussels under Merz.

A CDU/CSU-led federal government would “once again speak with one voice in Europe ― that is what Friedrich Merz stands for,” Weber said. “Contentious issues between government partners must be resolved in the coalition committee in Berlin and not on the open stage in Brussels.”