Ursula von der Leyen: podcast appearances and interviews

Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen born on October 8 1958 is a German politician and physician who has served as President of the European Commission since 2019. She previously held various positions within the German federal government from 2005 to 2019 including serving as Federal Minister for Defence from 2013 to 2019. She is a member of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union and its affiliated European party, the European People's Party. Born and raised in Brussels Belgium to German parents her father Ernst Albrecht was among the first European civil servants. She was raised bilingually in German and French and moved to Germany in 1971 when her father entered German politics. She graduated from the London School of Economics in 1978 and earned her medical license from Hanover Medical School in 1987. After marrying fellow physician Heiko von der Leyen she spent four years living in the United States during the 1990s. Returning to Germany she became involved in local politics in the Hanover region in the late 1990s and served as a cabinet minister in Lower Saxony from 2003 to 2005. In 2005 she joined the federal cabinet serving as Minister for Family Affairs and Youth, then as Minister for Labour and Social Affairs, and finally as Minister for Defence. She was the first woman to hold the Defence position. Von der Leyen was proposed as the European Commission president by the European Council on July 2 2019 and was elected by the European Parliament on July 16. She took office on December 1 2019 and was the first woman to assume this role. She was re-elected in July 2024 with an increased majority.