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'Free Speech Victory': Breton Resigns From European Commission Post

Leah Barkoukis
Leah Barkoukis  |  September 17, 2024 9:00 AM

European Commissioner Thierry Breton, who made headlines recently for trying to crack down on Elon Musk’s X, abruptly resigned Monday in what some are calling a win for freedom of speech. 

In his letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, which was posted on X, Breton lashed out at her efforts to put together a new team for the next five years. 

“On 24 July, you wrote to Member States asking them to nominate candidates for the 2024-2029 College of Commissioner, specifying that Member States that intent to suggest the incumbent Member of the Commission were not required to suggest two candidates,” he wrote. “On 25 July, President Emmanuel Macron designated me as France’s official candidate for a second mandate in the College of Commissioners—as he had already publicly announced on the margins of the European Council on 28 June. A few days ago, in the very final stretch of negotiations on the composition of the future College, you asked France to withdraw my name—for personal reasons that in no instance you have discussed directly with me—and offered, as a political trade-off, an allegedly more influential portfolio for France in the future College. You will now be proposed a different candidate.”

Breton said given the developments, which he argued was “further testimony to questionable governance,” he could no longer carry out his duties and was resigning, effective immediately. 

France picked Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne as its new candidate for the next European Commission as the incumbent, Thierry Breton, abruptly quit on Monday with tough words for the EU's re-elected executive chief Ursula von der Leyen. […]

But ditching Breton, who had publicly clashed with von der Leyen, was the price to pay for France to keep a big portfolio in the next European Commission team, which von der Leyen is expected to announce this week.

A source familiar with the matter said President Emmanuel Macron had negotiated a beefed up internal market and industry executive vice-president brief for the French nominee, overseeing a cluster of commissioners.

As the EU's second-biggest member state, France made clear it wanted a major post in the shake-up of key jobs in EU institutions that follows the June elections.

"The President has always sought to obtain a key European Commission portfolio for France, focused on the issues of industrial, technological sovereignty and European competitiveness," Macron's office said in a statement.

Sejourne, 39, is a Macron loyalist, a close ally who chairs his party and a former EU lawmaker who led the party's ticket in the 2019 European Parliament election. (Reuters)

Breton made headlines in the U.S. recently for a letter he sent to Elon Musk, warning him about how his conversation with former President Donald Trump could spread “harmful content." He also told Musk he needed to  “ensure X’s compliance” with EU law over the interview (the French business executive played a "key role in shaping the 27-nation EU's Big Tech regulation," Reuters reports). The letter was later publicly rebuked by von der Leyen. 

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