“It is good that the Commission is now opening up regulation in the automotive sector following the clear signal from the federal government,” Merz told BILD, a sister publication of POLITICO in the Axel Springer Group, on Tuesday. Weber, too, celebrated the result to BILD, heralding it as the product of late-night talks with Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who also hails from the EPP.
The partnership between the two German heavyweights was cemented at January’s EPP leaders’ summit in Berlin. There, Merz flaunted his ties to Europe’s center-right elite — including von der Leyen — to impress domestic voters, while Weber flexed his party muscle by delivering a parade of prime ministers to Merz’s doorstep, bolstering his own grip on the EPP.
Weber said the EPP’s achievements under his leadership address the issues that drive Europe’s voters toward the far right. “My plan and my ambitions as EPP leader were clear: I want to stop populism in Europe … I want to take away the reasons of attack, the points of attack from the populists against Europe,” he told a press conference on Tuesday.
The biggest victory for Merz and Weber has been to secure a Commission proposal reversing the EU’s de facto combustion engine ban by lowering the emission reduction target for car producers from 100 percent to 90 percent.
Both publicly celebrated the move last week before it was officially announced, irking the liberals and the center-left, who saw it as von der Leyen giving her own party concessions behind closed doors.
Weber going to the press and calling victory “even before it is decided in the Commission’s college … is unacceptable,” said Renew Europe chief Valérie Hayer.