BRUSSELS ― European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was confined to hospital suffering from pneumonia, her spokesperson said Friday, shedding light on the seriousness of her illness for the first time.
“We can confirm that the president was hospitalized to treat pneumonia, and has now returned home,” Commission spokesperson Arianna Podestà told POLITICO. “At no time she was in intensive care.”
“She was in daily contact with her team in the Commission,” she said. “She is now working from home, while further recovering from that severe illness.”
The revelation ― more than a week after the Commission announced that she was ill ― raises questions over a lack of transparency about the EU’s most powerful official. On Wednesday, asked whether von der Leyen had been admitted to hospital, Paula Pinho, the president’s chief spokesperson, said there was “no update.”
Von der Leyen’s illness forced a delay to the unveiling of a key piece of her economic strategy, as well as a meeting of the college of Commissioners in Poland.
But at that point von der Leyen’s camp made no mention of her hospital stay, which took place at University Hospital in Hanover and lasted about a week, according to German press agency DPA.
The president canceled her engagements in the first half of January due to a case of “severe pneumonia,” according to her spokesperson last Friday, who said she was convalescing in her home city of Hanover.
Von der Leyen is now out of hospital and posted a picture on Instagram from her home office. “Home sweet home … office!” she wrote.
This story is being updated.
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