Even in the best of times, Europe does not lend itself easily to power lists. The Continent’s multiple — often competing — centers of power, and its preference for consensus-building and process, creates a landscape in which influence is diffuse, muted, contested.
And these are far from the best of times. With a pandemic, a war, impending climate catastrophe and economic turbulence, it’s harder to find the person — especially after former German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s exit from politics — in charge of fixing it all.
The question we asked last year — who will step into Merkel’s shoes? — seems no closer to being answered. Last year, this publication pegged then Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi to be the leader that would break the Franco-German duopoly; he failed to stick around and was replaced by Giorgia Meloni, a far-right firebrand who’s looking eastward for allies.
Elsewhere, the landscape of power is fractured. This year’s edition of POLITICO 28 — our annual ranking of the doers, dreamers and disrupters driving European politics and policy — does not feature a single executive leader from Berlin, London, Paris or Brussels.
That Franco-German duopoly itself is at its lowest ebb in years. French President Emmanuel Macron, despite securing a second term, has lost his majority in parliament and is beset by problems at home. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz appears to be trying his damndest not to be a European leader, focusing his energies on keeping his fractious coalition afloat and — with visits to China even as sentiment toward Beijing cools elsewhere — appears to be going one way when Europe is going another.
In Brussels, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen appears to have tied her fortunes to Washington at the expense of alienating her own colleagues, including the European Council President Charles Michel. And across the Channel in the United Kingdom, political turmoil has accelerated a decline of influence that was supercharged by Brexit.
Which brings us to who actually is in the POLITICO 28 — Class of 2023.
As always, the list was compiled by drawing on the expertise and insights of POLITICO’s journalists and the power players they talk to. The ranking is divided into three categories — the doers with the formal power to get things done, the disrupters poised to upend the status quo, and the dreamers who represent ideas driving European power and politics — and above them all, the most powerful person in Europe.
Most of the individuals featured on the list have found power and influence in responding to — or exacerbating — the crises faced by the Continent. Climate ministers and central bankers dealing with the effects of the war in Ukraine; bureaucrats with oversized influence (and little accountability); far-right leaders, warmongers and dark diplomats — they’re all shaping Europe.
And at the top of the ranking is a politician who is redefining what it means to be European.
Just because power is diffuse does not mean it isn’t there. One just has to dig a little deeper to find it, and this is what POLITICO found.
