Thread by @jonworth

A short 🧵 about Ursula von der Leyen - not least in response to critique of me labelling her a "second rate" politician earlier

"Second rate" is not quite right. Perhaps "politician with an unusual combination of strengths and weaknesses" is better.

1/10

The central issue is where and when vdL is a classic insider, and where she is an outsider

vdL is daughter of Ernst Albrecht, previously CDU Ministerpräsident in Lower Saxony - so in and of the party en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Alb…

2/10

Yet other aspects set her apart. She is a women in a male dominated party (Merkel of course being the other major exception), and a protestant in a party dominated by catholics. And she's a medical doctor in a political system dominated by lawyers.

3/10

It's also her way of working that sets her apart. She's known to be a determined and hard worker, calling meetings with officials at especially early hours.

She had a flat built in the Berlaymont and lives there, and goes back to Hannover at weekends.

4/10

That means that she somehow has never been part of the fray. Never part of the rough and tumble of politics. Never really *rooted* in the political culture of the place - be that Berlin or the Brussels bubble.

There is the lingering question: is she really a team player?

5/10

There have always also been instances where she has not wanted to work with the traditional administrative machine - from reliance on consultants when Minister of Defence, to bringing in Brussels outsider Björn Seibert as Head of Cabinet

6/10

As a result there has always been a sense that she does not have the best political instincts - she makes errors because she does not read all the parts of the game, does not work with the machinery - be that of the administration or the party

7/10

That of course *sometimes* works well - it is not always good to go with the flow, to work with the machine, to do what is politically opportune

But a genuinely top class politician knows when to push and when to back off. Has an instinct for danger or making errors

8/10

The same combination of skills that made vdL a good person to front the final stages of Brexit vis à vis Boris Johnson are the same combination that meant she made a mis-step on the communication with AZ and Article 16. That is how she is I think

9/10

vdL is not universally good or universally bad as a politician. She is unusual. That can work well sometimes, and dreadfully badly sometimes too

Keep that in mind when assessing her future behaviour

10/10