The former EU communist negotiating tariffs with Trump

BrusselsMaros Sefcovic (1966, Bratislava) is a textbook bureaucrat. He knows the corridors of Brussels perfectly and is the longest-serving European Commissioner in the EU executive. He never strays from the script agreed upon by the European Union, and the only thing that breaks the predictability of his words are the ties he wears, often in bright colors and garish prints. He hasn't managed to win any major medals on his lengthy resume as a diplomat and political representative, but he has the ability to always stand up to the changing times. He has survived the European Commission of José Manuel Barroso, Jean-Claude Juncker, and Ursula von der Leyen.

The Slovak leader has been a European Commissioner for more than fifteen years, since 2009, and von der Leyen has not hesitated to renew him in an executive that has been completely tailor-made for her, of which has expelled the freest verses And he has kept the most docile. In fact, he has placed him in one of the portfolios that were expected to be most important in the event of a potential return of Donald Trump to the White House: Trade and Economic Security.

At this time, Sefcovic is the only member of the European Commission who has met.up to three times— with their American counterparts to avoid an escalation of the US-initiated tariff war. So far, Trump has refused to meet with Von der Leyen, and, for example, Washington officials stood down the European diplomat's office just hours before her arrival at the White House. the convinced Atlanticist Kaja Kallas.

The trade commissioner has not received any criticism from member states despite the fact that the effort to reach an agreed solution with the Trump administration is failing completely. He called for more "engagement" from Washington.

Sefcovic has worked as a diplomat in various countries, from Zimbabwe to Belgium, via Israel and Canada, and has also been Slovakia's representative in the EU Council, which is one of the most powerful engine rooms of the European institutions. Then, in 2009, he made the leap to the European Commission and has led the portfolios of Sport and Culture, Energy, the Green Deal, International Relations, and, now, Trade. Thus, the current Trade Commissioner has gradually risen through the ranks, quietly and in a secondary role.

However, there are aspects of his past that have always haunted him, and they were particularly criticized when he ran for the Slovak presidential elections in 2019, losing. Just before the fall of the Berlin Wall, Sefcovic began his diplomatic career and was affiliated with the Czechoslovak Communist Party when he worked for that state. However, his closeness to Russia does not end there. He also studied at one of the universities where a large part of the Russian ruling class passes through, the Moscow State Institute of International Relations.

To make matters worse, the government that has supported him as European Commissioner is that of Robert Fico, a populist socialist which is increasingly taking more authoritarian positions and aligning itself with Vladimir Putin's regime. In fact, Fico and Sefcovic's party was expelled from the Party of European Socialists (PES), and he is now the only member of the European Commission who is not part of any political party at the European level. "We no longer know if he counts as a left-wing commissioner," notes another EU source. In this sense, the Slovak leader claims to be a defender of traditional Christian values, and opposed to same-sex marriage and adoption by same-sex couples.

Be that as it may, the Slovak leader currently has the absolute confidence of Brussels and the vast majority of European partners, who have entrusted him with the complicated task of negotiating with the Trump administration. Thus, despite his tone and manner of a discreet Eurocrat who wants to go unnoticed, everything indicates that Sefcovic will be one of the protagonists of the trade war between the European Union and the United States, and that he has many front pages and headlines yet to be filled.