{"id":798264,"date":"2026-03-02T04:02:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T04:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/798264\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T04:02:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T04:02:10","slug":"mercosur-gamble-shows-von-der-leyen-thinks-she-can-go-over-frances-head-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/798264\/","title":{"rendered":"Mercosur gamble shows von der Leyen thinks she can go over France\u2019s head \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Commission chief said she consulted widely with countries and lawmakers. However, shortly after the announcement, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/brussels-implements-eu-mercosur-trade-deal\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Macron said<\/a> that \u201cfor France, it\u2019s a surprise, and an unpleasant one.&#8221; A chorus of French ministers and lawmakers also <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/AnnieGenevard\/status\/2027402594155446563\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">slammed the decision<\/a>, accusing officials in Brussels of ignoring the will of EU citizens.<\/p>\n<p>Two French officials confirmed to POLITICO that the government in Paris was not informed in advance of von der Leyen&#8217;s decision to force through a deal that France <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/french-government-insiders-macron-lost-mercosur-battle\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">has been fighting against for years<\/a>, amid an overwhelming backlash from the country&#8217;s political parties, influential farmers and public opinion.<\/p>\n<p>Diplomats and officials from other EU members, who were granted anonymity to speak candidly on a sensitive issue, were quick to draw the conclusion that France&#8217;s influence in Brussels is fading and that the European Commission chief now thinks she can deliberately ignore the opposition of a French president who will leave power next year.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know which of the two is worse for the French: not having been informed or not having been able to block the Commission. I think the former,&#8221; said one EU government official.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Macron must have been the only person in Europe to be surprised,&#8221; joked one EU diplomat.<\/p>\n<p>While von der Leyen had long made clear that she wanted the deal to enter into force soon, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/some-eu-mercosur-biggest-fans-nervous-about-moving-fast\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">uncertainty loomed<\/a> over whether the Commission was ready to sideline the European Parliament and go for an early implementation of an agreement that would create a free-trade area among between the EU and Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, spanning 720 million people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Commission chief said she consulted widely with countries and lawmakers. However, shortly after the announcement, Macron said&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":798265,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5309],"tags":[10105,6850,2106,34,2000,299,6644,36,1824,475,43,11665,22708,22709,1217,1201,6862,1220,22710],"class_list":["post-798264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-france","tag-argentina","tag-beef","tag-brazil","tag-emmanuel-macron","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-farmers","tag-france","tag-germany","tag-imports","tag-macron","tag-meps","tag-mercosur","tag-paraguay","tag-protectionism","tag-trade","tag-trade-agreements","tag-ursula-von-der-leyen","tag-uruguay"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116157595274679954","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=798264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/798265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=798264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=798264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=798264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}