Von der Leyen’s Power Grab

European Union bureaucrats have long dictated policies to member states. But in the last few years, this power has become increasingly consolidated in one person: European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

While many are alarmed, the true danger of this trend is disguised by the seeming innocence of the personality at the top. However, von der Leyen’s power grab is paving the way for a ruthless leader—Europe’s prophesied final dictator.

Consolidating Power

Over the past few years, von der Leyen has undermined and eliminated rivals while elevating her own office.

The latest is a new German-Franco plan, to be discussed on Wednesday, that will put High Representative Kaja Kallas under von der Leyen’s supervision.

The Treaty of Lisbon puts the high representative in charge of designing, coordinating and implementing foreign policy on behalf of the 27 member states. But since trade, energy and migration fall to the Commission, the high representative has always had limited power.

The new initiative will expand the powers of the high representative but place it entirely under the Commission president.

Euronews reported on this plan on August 31:

Von der Leyen’s expansive clout has raised eyebrows across capitals, prompting occasional rebukes of “overreach” and “power grab,” even though she has often been encouraged by EU leaders to take the lead on global crises.

Here is the paradox: European capitals want an overarching president, but they don’t want to lose their independence. Yet it is their weakness that opens the door for authoritarian rule.

‘Super-Authoritarian Governance’

The conservative advocacy think tank Gatestone Institute wrote on August 1:

Even former high-ranking officials from the institutions of the European Union are beginning to speak out against the undemocratic regime of the unelected, untransparent, unaccountable European Commission—especially under its senior bureaucrat, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

“Today, the Commission is trying to take control. That’s not in line with the [EU] treaty,” Charles Michel, former president of the European Council, told the Brussel Times in April. “There is a super-authoritarian governance.”

Michel was one of von der Leyen’s institutional rivals, but today he and other dissenting voices are mere outsiders.

At the beginning of von der Leyen’s second term, Politico wrote:

As she revealed the 26 commissioners and their roles to the public, one point was immediately clear: She would have unfettered control over European Union politics. In a matter of minutes, she introduced a big title with little responsibility for one of the most powerful countries in the European Union, she propped up her buddies, and she diluted powerful portfolios by dividing them among multiple people.

The power grab was complete.

The article explained how she removed “dissenting voices,” “naysayers” and even strong rivals such as France’s Thierry Breton and the Netherlands’ Frans Timmermans.

An anonymous EU official said at the time: “She will be even more in control of everything. Who thought that was even possible?”

In her first term she added authoritarian touches to the presidency. She was known “for making unilateral decisions, overstepping her job description, cutting other EU leaders out of the decision-making, and speaking only to a handful of advisers. As a result, she gained the nickname Queen Ursula in Brussels” (ibid).

National Weakness

Her success is partly due to a lack of national leadership. Politico wrote in 2024: “Once powerful leaders who steered the EU are weakened, leaving a void for von der Leyen to fill.”

This remains true today. French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz have been content with political deadlock at home and unable to lead abroad.

“You don’t have to teach von der Leyen how to play the power game,” another EU diplomat told Politico. “She saw the vacuum left by the European capitals and jumped into it.”

There is another aspect to this story: Those who opposed the EU’s dominating role have also been eliminated.

In “Poland Under Attack,” theTrumpet.com managing editor Richard Palmer highlighted how pressure by the German-led EU led to the 2023 Polish government’s election loss. Former Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydło said, “Yes, the German authorities are currently focused on making a fast change in the European treaties to make the EU a federal state with member states reduced to the role of parts of the federation.”

Earlier this year, we saw a similar trend in Hungary when long-standing EU critic Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán lost the election to pro-EU Péter Magyar—largely due to pressure from the EU.

National weakness elevates the EU presidency. The title of a 2024 Politico article says it all: “From Queen to Empress: Inside Ursula von der Leyen’s Power Grab.”

An EU Super-President?

In January, Manfred Weber, leader of the European People’s Party, advocated merging the roles of president of the European Commission and president of the European Council so Europe could speak with one voice. This would give Europe an “all-powerful president,” Politico wrote at the time.

What is currently happening is already a step in that direction. It is also exactly what Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry warned about in his 2016 article “The Spirit of Charlemagne Is Alive in Europe.” Regarding the 2012 Berlin Group that sought a new form of leadership for the EU, he wrote:

This small faction of European foreign ministers was informally called the “Berlin Group.” Its confidential discussions revolved around combining the presidencies of the European Council and the European Commission. These foreign ministers wanted to merge the two positions and create an EU superpresident, a monolithic position of absolute power greater than that of the president of the United States! …

Macer Hall, described the powers of such a European president this way: “Opponents fear the plan would create a modern-day equivalent of the European emperor envisaged by Napoleon Bonaparte or a return to the Holy Roman Empire of Charlemagne that dominated Europe in the Dark Ages” (emphasis mine throughout).

The EU has yet to realize this plan. But keep watching Europe—you can expect it to happen soon!

These descriptions of an EU super-president closely align with a key Bible prophecy.

Revelation 17 compares Europe’s rising empire and its prophesied emperor with a vicious, vile beast. This emperor is prophesied to have power over 10 other rulers: “And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast” (verses 12-13).

In an Aug. 14, 1978, co-worker letter, the late Herbert W. Armstrong explained: “But they will give all their military and monetary power to the central ruler over the ten—the coming European leader.”

In “The European Union’s Fatal Flaw” in the June 2000 Trumpet, Mr. Flurry wrote:

And remember, this political “beast” is labeled that way by God. The man ruling it will be like an emperor over the 10 kings—and will act like a wild beast! This could not happen in a democracy.

This role of emperor is the fatal flaw in the European Union. The vile person will become the emperor and lead Europe in its most destructive path ever.

For this prophecy to be fulfilled, 10 European leaders will, one way or another, empower a single ruler. The EU is heading in this direction. The Telegraph reported in January:

There’s a new appetite to move forward on important matters in smaller groups of member states if necessary.

Unanimous decisions are out of fashion, with more and more being taken by a vote, with a majority vote, weighted by population.

Soon these nations will have an appetite for an all-powerful super-president, a European dictator. They will see their own weakness compared to the powerful leaders of the United States, China and Russia, and they will agree to give “their power and strength unto the beast.”

But this ruler will not be Ursula von der Leyen. To learn who is most likely to be this leader, read “Watch This Man Closely.”