Call me Ursula. Von der Leyen rebranded ahead of elections – POLITICO

#ProudGrandma

While the strategy to focus more on her personality and her family may surprise the Brussels bubble, it is not entirely new for von der Leyen.

Before making a surprise entry into European politics in 2019, the Brussels-born medical doctor’s personality and family life were well-known in German politics. She joined the first cabinet of former Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2005 as family minister after becoming labor minister in 2009. She took over the defense ministry in 2014, which was largely seen as a failure.

Throughout those years, von der Leyen regularly talked about herself and her family of seven children, particularly in her early years as family minister. Opponents criticized her for putting her family on display and using them for her own political advantage, they said.

In her early political years, von der Leyen openly discussed the difficulties of combining a career and parenthood as she was fighting for public daycare as a family minister. To this day, improving mothers’ ability to stay in the workforce remains a politically sensitive topic in German society.

In doing so, she potentially drew inspiration from her father Ernst Albrecht, a former German politician and top European civil servant, who regularly used his family in his campaigns. At one point, he even introduced his family on a TV show to let his wife and their children sing.

It’ s unlikely von der Leyen will go this far.

“This is not a US-style presidential campaign,” said a spokesperson for the campaign who was granted anonymity to speak openly about the campaign. “For example, you won’t see the family.”

Still, “Ursula” has a few weeks left to pull off the transformation to #ProudGrandma.