The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, is being flooded with criticism for having participated in a promotional video for the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), ahead of the parliamentary elections in that country.
By appearing in that commercial, she violated EU guidelines regarding political neutrality for European Commission officials.
Von der Leyen is a member of the center-right German Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which belongs to the same group in the European Parliament, the European People’s Party, as the HDZ.
Responding to the avalanche of criticism, a spokesperson for the European Commission said that Ursula von der Leyen supported the Croatian campaign in her “personal capacity.” He added that “this was unfortunately not clearly shown in the final version of the video.”
In the video, von der Leyen was positioned and referred to as the President of the European Commission, and was filmed standing in front of the European flag.
‘The President recorded a short statement for a video featuring members of the European People’s Party (EPP). That was meant to be her personal contribution to them, but this was not clearly indicated in the final version of the video,’ wrote spokesperson Eric Mamer on his Twitter account.
The Code of Conduct for members of the European Commission states that they must refrain from public statements and interventions on behalf of a political party or organization to which they belong, except when they themselves participate in elections or vote.
According to the still incomplete results of the Croatian elections, the ruling HDZ convincingly won yesterday’s vote. With more than 90 percent of the votes counted, the HDZ secured 66 seats in the 151-seat parliament and will likely form a new coalition government with smaller right-wing groups.