“Thinks he is Louis XIV.”: BSW boss Fabio De Masi is suing Ursula von der Leyen | EUROtoday

BSW boss Fabio De Masi is taking the matter to the European Court of Justice in a dispute with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The cause is that, from De Masi’s perspective, von der Leyen offered inadequate details about her contacts with arms firms. The assertion of declare is out there to the German Press Agency. The intention is to “obtain a precedent for the rights of the EU Parliament,” defined De Masi.

As a MEP, he invokes data rights for democratic management of the European Commission. Von der Leyen violated her obligation beneath the EU treaties to reply questions from Parliament, the lawsuit states. In March 2025, De Masi requested details about all of von der Leyen’s contacts with arms producers since mid-2024, i.e. conferences, phone calls, video conferences, emails and correspondence. In his view, the reply from October 2025 was too late and too common.

According to the lawsuit, von der Leyen “referred to a ‘strategic dialogue with the European defense industry’ that she organized on May 12, 2025, to a working lunch, to invitations that she had to decline, and congratulatory messages received, and also referred to the EU Commission’s website, the transparency register, as well as other communication channels and social media.”

De Masi criticized: “Mrs von der Leyen thinks she is Louis XIV.” This refers back to the absolutist “Sun King” in seventeenth century France.

The lawsuit isn’t formally directed in opposition to von der Leyen himself, however in opposition to the EU Commission. A spokesman for the Brussels authority mentioned: “The Commission expressly does not share Mr De Masi’s legal opinion. However, it is his right to have an administrative decision that is not satisfactory to him judicially reviewed.”