Germany’s Ursula von der Leyen will seek a second term as head of the European Union’s powerful Commission in a move that could make her the most significant politician representing the bloc’s 450 million citizens in over a generation.

Following five years of leading the 27-nation bloc through multiple crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic and the first two years of Russia’s war in Ukraine, the 65-year-old was put forward by her German Christian Democratic Union party and will only need a further rubber stamp when the party’s European umbrella group meets early next month in Bucharest.

She said that even if she accepted in 2019 to become the Commission’s chief on an intuitive whim when asked by EU leaders, it is now a very conscious choice.