European Commission president oversteps her authority — Pierre de Gaulle

MOSCOW, April 18. /TASS/. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is overstepping her authority by claiming to act in the interests of EU countries, Pierre de Gaulle, grandson of former French President Charles de Gaulle and head of the Foundation for Peace and Friendship Among Peoples, told TASS. "We have a President of the European Commission who pretends to act on behalf of European countries, takes on powers she does not have, and tries to handle issues of their energy independence, while she herself is in an extremely vulnerable position," he said on the sidelines of the Event Management Workshop. According to de Gaulle, the French government should primarily focus on the well-being of its own population and abandon the "mindless" Euro-Atlantic policy, under which 70% of fuel prices consist of taxes. In late March and early April, amid the situation in the Middle East and disruptions to shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, fuel prices in Europe began to rise sharply. As Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, economic counsellor with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), acknowledged, the US-Israeli military operation against Iran could entail a large-scale economic crisis.