Teresa Ribera wants to be the EU’s next Green Deal chief — and she thinks the woman who might be her boss is making a colossal and damaging mistake.
In an interview with POLITICO, Spain’s deputy prime minister said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s willingness to work with the far right and ease off the green agenda revealed “an attitude of resignation that is enormously pernicious” and “enormously harmful to European interests.”
It’s the sharpest attack yet on von der Leyen by a prospective commissioner as she campaigns for a likely second term after June’s elections. During the interview, Ribera unsparingly went after both von der Leyen and her center-right European People’s Party.
“They are saying, ‘Let’s take a break, let’s just slow down the [green] agenda,'” Ribera said. “And very honestly, I think this is a great mistake: There is no time to waste.”
