Thierry Breton storms out of the European Commission

The move comes amid rumblings of a row with Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and just hours ahead of her planned announcement of a new slate of commissioners for her upcoming second term in charge. Breton (pictured above in happier times) essentially accused von der Leyen of pushing him out of the new commission, offering the French government a bigger role going forward if it switched its candidate.

"A few days ago, in the very final stretch of negotiations on the composition of the future College, you asked France to withdraw my name – for personal reasons that in no instance you have discussed directly with me – and offered, as a political trade-off, an allegedly more influential portfolio for France in the future College," Breton said in a resignation letter posted on social media platform X on Monday and copied below.

The new candidate came quickly. France's TF1, and myriad other news outlets, confirmed that French President Emmanuel Macron has nominated outgoing foreign minister Stéphane Séjourné to become the country's next European Commissioner.

There have been reports of late that France was unhappy with the dilution of Breton's – and therefore its own – role at the European Commission. Clearly the government jumped at the chance to remove Breton in order to boost its own position.

Breton has had a number of public disagreements with von der Leyen, the most recent, and arguably most explosive, coming as recently as August, when he took X owner Elon Musk to task over potentially harmful content appearing on his social media platform ahead of his high-profile interview with US presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Breton's comments were interpreted as him sticking his oar into US politics, on the other side of the Atlantic, at least, and the Commission quickly distanced itself from them. As the FT reported at the time, the Commission issued a statement explaining that neither it nor the President had agreed to Breton's letter. X is under investigation by the Commission under its Digital Services Act, but clearly Brussels felt that Breton had overstepped in this case.

Breton, until today Europe's internal markets commissioner, has been quite a presence in the European telecoms landscape in recent years, banging the drum for a single telecoms market – albeit without endorsing in-market consolidation – and tackling the issue of making the big technology companies contribute to the cost of network rollout.

Both of those big issues are far from being resolved, of course. But we have become used to having a telecoms heavyweight – Breton served as CEO of France Telecom, of course – bringing them under the spotlight.

But his position at the Commission had clearly become untenable. His resignation letter made reference to "questionable governance" on von der Leyen's part. With a new Commission about to take office, it's hardly surprising that the President would seek fresh blood.