Ursula von der Leyen arrives to attend arrives at the International Space Summit at the Grand Palais in Paris on Sept. 10, 2026.Pool photo by Abdul Saboor via AFP/Getty Images

Ursula von der Who? Polling shows many EU citizens don’t know who Commission president is – POLITICO

by · POLITICO

Ursula von der Leyen hasn’t won the hearts and minds of EU citizens — if they know her at all.

In a POLITICO poll conducted by pollster Public First across three major EU countries, only about one in five German and Spanish respondents said the Commission president was doing a good job; in France, just 12% said the same.

Nearly one in three respondents in Spain and France, and 45% in Germany, said von der Leyen was doing a bad job. The poor performance review in von der Leyen’s homeland was largely driven by people who said they’d vote for the far-right Alternative for Germany party, with more than half of those voters saying she was doing a “very bad” job.