The EconomistSeptember 14th 2019 Europe 352 European fears of “second-class” status.
With Mrs von der Leyen the trio will form
an inner quad running the eu’s executive,
with an outer ring of five regular vice-pres-
idents (three from eastern Europe and two
from southern Europe, providing a geo-
graphical balance), and beyond them the
remaining 18 members of the commission.
Among the other vice-presidents and
commissioners are several notable ap-
pointments. Paolo Gentiloni, a centre-left
former prime minister of Italy, becomes
commissioner for economic affairs with
responsibility for fiscal rules—indicating
that Mrs von der Leyen wants to use the op-
portunity of Italy’s new, more pro-Euro-
pean governing coalition to resolve the
Brussels-Rome dispute over the Italian
budget. This may, however, worry flintier
Germans and northern European members
of the so-called New Hanseatic League.
Sylvie Goulard, a French former defence
minister and close ally of Mr Macron, takes
charge of the single market and defence.
She will oversee the establishment of a
European strategy for regulating artificial
intelligence and, with Ms Vestager, will
push forward a Digital Services Act on e-
commerce. Phil Hogan of Ireland, cur-
rently the agriculture commissioner, will
take over the trade portfolio, including re-
sponsibility for negotiating any deal with a
post-Brexit Britain—a firm reminder that
the eu’s first allegiances in such matters
are to Dublin rather than London.
Less auspicious is the nomination of
Laszlo Trocsanyi as commissioner for en-
largement; as an ally of Hungary’s authori-
tarian Viktor Orban, he is hardly well-
placed to pass judgment on the rule of law
in would-be accession countries. The fact
that Margaritis Schinas, the Greek commis-
sioner and a former chief spokesman for
the commission, has been made vice-pres-
ident for migration (a portfolio ominously
dubbed “protecting our European way of
life”) suggests the incoming commission
will see that matter as a question of tough
borders and public relations.
Most important for the wider world is
that the von der Leyen commission will be
committed to making Europe a more au-
tonomous actor in a dicey world—or ex-
tending “European sovereignty”, as it is
called in euro-speak. Ms Vestager and Ms
Goulard want to use their clout to develop a
distinctively European way of managing
new technology and finding a balance be-
tween open markets and interventionist
industrial strategy in responding to new
industrial giants from China and Silicon
Valley (tough Ms Vestager’s liberal in-
stincts may collide with the activist mood,
personified by Ms Goulard, in Paris and
Berlin). Mr Borrell, a straight-talking so-
cialist and foreign-policy heavyweight,
will also have a licence to project Europe’s
voice in the world more loudly. 7
T
he first indication that things were
not going to plan for Vladimir Putin
came when the official exit polls for city-
council elections in Moscow failed to ma-
terialise on schedule at 6pm on September
8th. By the early hours, the majority en-
joyed by United Russia, the ruling party,
had taken a huge dent, a sign of a growing
mood of discontent in the capital.
Before the election, United Russia had
held 40 of the 45 seats in the largely power-
less but symbolically significant city coun-
cil. By the time the final votes were totted
up next day, it had seen that total fall by al-
most half, to 25.
United Russia’s collapse was all the
more remarkable given that over a dozen
aspiring candidates linked to Alexei Na-
valny (pictured), Mr Putin’s most promi-
nent domestic critic, had been barred from
the polls, a move that sparked weeks of
protests in Moscow over the summer. The
decision to blacklist the opposition figures
was reportedly taken when the Kremlin re-
alised that they would win at least nine
seats, providing them with a political
springboard for parliamentary elections
due in 2021. But the move turned the elec-
tion into a referendum on the govern-
ment’s record, leading to a much stronger
protest vote than anyone had expected.
A number of United Russia candidateshad opted to run as nominal independents
in a bid to mask their association with the
regime. Mr Navalny outed them as mem-
bers of the party. This, even more than the
formal vote, exposed the fact that United
Russia has become a liability rather than an
asset for the Kremlin. The party’s ratings
have slumped to near-record lows this
year, amid anger over an increase in the na-
tional pension age and frequent allega-
tions of corruption. Mr Putin’s popularity
has slumped too, for the same reasons.
Mr Navalny also called on his suppor-
ters to vote for whichever candidate was
best placed to defeat United Russia, even if
that meant for fake opposition parties; he
called this tactic “smart voting”, and it suc-
ceeded beyond expectation. “This is a fan-
tastic result for ‘smart voting’,” said Mr Na-
valny as the election results started to
come in. The Communist Party, the largest
officially recognised opposition party, won
13 seats, up from five last time round. A Just
Russia, a centre-left party that, like the
Communists, is part of the Kremlin-loyal
“opposition”, won three seats. Yabloko, the
only genuine opposition party allowed on
the ballot, saw all four of its candidates en-
ter the city council.
The plan produced some odd effects.
Liberal Russians who celebrated the col-
lapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 gritted
their teeth and voted for Communist Party
candidates, some of them open admirers of
Stalin. “It’s not ideal, but there’s no other
way left to register my disapproval of Un-
ited Russia in Moscow,” said Mikhail, a
middle-aged voter. “The Communists have
the best chance of victory.”
Even widely reported ballot-box trick-
ery was unable to save one United Russia
heavyweight. Andrei Metelsky, the head of
the party’s offices in Moscow, lost his seat
to a little-known socialist running on the
Communist Party ticket.
Besides the vote in Moscow, Russians
also voted for the heads of 16 regions, as
well as lawmakers for 13 regional parlia-
ments. United Russia suffered a colossal
defeat in the Khabarovsk region, in the
country’s far east, where the nationalist
Liberal Democratic Party of Russia won 34
of 35 seats in the local parliament.
There was better news for Mr Putin in
the elections for governorships, where Un-
ited Russia’s candidates all triumphed in
the first round. However, six of its incum-
bent governors ran as independents, in-
cluding Alexander Beglov, the party’s for-
mer boss in St Petersburg. Mr Beglov’s
biography was removed from United Rus-
sia’s website before the vote.
Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s toothless
prime minister, said the election results
proved that United Russia remains the
country’s biggest political force. He is right.
But Mr Putin’s foes will have scented a new
vulnerability in the ruling party. 7MOSCOW
Local elections embarrass the KremlinRussiaMoscow’s slap to
Putin