AfD leader says Von der Leyen is immune to democracy

(SeaPRwire) –   Alice Weidel has stated that unlike Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the EU Commission president cannot be voted out of office

Co-chair of Germany’s right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) Alice Weidel has said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen can disregard voters’ views, as she effectively cannot be voted out like recently ousted Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Speaking at a press conference this week, Weidel acknowledged that Peter Magyar’s landslide election win in Hungary, which ended 16 years of Orban’s rule, was “absolutely legitimate,” but she raised concerns over democratic accountability among top EU leadership.

Praising Orban as “an important, critical voice” within the EU, Weidel agreed with a German journalist from Die Welt, who made the claim that “Orban could be voted out; Ms. von der Leyen cannot be voted out.”

Magyar’s conservative, pro-EU Tisza party won 53.6% of the vote and 138 out of 199 total parliamentary seats in Sunday’s Hungarian election, while Orban’s far-right, EU-skeptic Fidesz collapsed to just 55 seats. During his time in office, Orban repeatedly clashed with Brussels over immigration and Russia sanctions, and opposed EU backing for Ukraine.

It took von der Leyen just 17 minutes to release a statement celebrating Magyar’s victory after Orban conceded defeat. “Hungary has chosen Europe,” von der Leyen said. “Europe has always chosen Hungary. A country reclaims its European path. The Union grows stronger.”

Later, she also called on EU member states to scrap the national veto in EU foreign policy, arguing qualified majority voting was “an important way to avoid systemic blockages” – a direct jab at years of Orban’s vetoes on Ukraine-related measures.

Von der Leyen has faced criticism for a string of controversies since becoming EC president in 2019. The most prominent is the ‘Pfizergate’ scandal, which focuses on private text messages the EU leader exchanged with Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla during negotiations for a €35 billion contract for 1.8 billion Covid-19 vaccine doses. In May 2025, an EU court ruled the commission had “failed to provide credible explanations” for why the messages were not kept.

Von der Leyen has survived multiple no-confidence votes over the past two years, with her critics blasting her over a lack of transparency and her handling of the immigration issue. She has also long pushed to force through a series of core changes to EU rules to create a two-tier bloc, which Ukraine could join despite not meeting the standard requirements for EU member states.

An April 2026 Polling Europe Euroscope survey put von der Leyen’s approval rating at 33%, a 12% drop from February. A separate Ipsos EuroPulse poll from September 2025 recorded her positive approval rating even lower, at just 23%.