EU Commissioner Breton resigns, attacks von der Leyen's leadership

France's Thierry Breton abruptly resigned as the EU's internal market commissioner on Monday and said in a pointed letter he would not seek a post in President Ursula von der Leyen's new team of European commissioners.

Breton said in his resignation letter posted on X that von der Leyen asked Paris to nominate another person in exchange for "an allegedly more influential portfolio for France" in the EU executive arm.

Breton, who is the incumbent French commissioner, said this "political trade-off" was made "for personal reasons that in no instance" von der Leyen discussed directly with him.

The French candidate, who publicly criticized von der Leyen's leadership during the recent European Parliament elections, said this was "further testimony to questionable governance" in the commission.

A spokeswoman for the commission declined to comment on the public contents of Breton's letter and the attack made on von der Leyen's leadership of the commission.

The spokeswoman also declined to comment on von der Leyen's engagement with Paris about the assignment of commission portfolios, citing the confidentiality of the engagements.

The resignation comes as the commission president is preparing to unveil her new leadership team to the European Parliament on Tuesday.

The process has already been delayed over a domestic political row in Slovenia about the nomination of a candidate to the commission.

Von der Leyen is wrangling with EU countries over policy portfolios, trying to balance geographic and political factors in the composition of the EU executive arm.

Complicating matters further is von der Leyen's request for EU member states to nominate a man and a woman for the commission roles in pursuit of gender parity among her 26 commissioners.

The commission president made exceptions to this request for EU countries that wished to nominate their sitting European Commissioner, like Breton, for another term.

However, most EU member states defied von der Leyen's request and nominated only one candidate to the commission - the majority of them being male.

There is no legal requirement in EU treaties to nominate a male and female.

After the surprise resignation of Breton, the Élysée Palace announced the nomination of Stéphane Séjourné, the outgoing French Foreign Minister. Paris did not nominate a woman to replace Breton.

In a statement the Élysée Palace thanked Breton and said Séjourné, a former EU legislator in the European Parliament, "meets all the required criteria" for the commission.