EU Puppet-Master Walks Away, Leaving Behind Enemies and Intrigue
Friend and foe agree Martin Selmayr’s departure will leave a hole in EU machinery
Photographer: Frederick Florin/AFP via Getty Images
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On an early spring evening in the French city of Strasbourg, behind the familiar faces of U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, walked the man the Germans call the puppet-master.
Although it had been publicly denied, Martin Selmayr, the commission’s top civil servant, had a couple of months earlier taken personal control of the European Union side of the Brexit talks. The deal with the U.K. looked in tatters and Selmayr was doing what he did best during more than 15 years in Brussels: pulling strings, treading on toes and banging heads together.