Thierry Breton’s 7 most memorable moments

In a surprise move, European Commissioner Thierry Breton today (16 September) announced his resignation, following an apparent call by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen for France to change nominees.

Breton is leaving office in a blaze of fury, alleging "questionable governance" under von der Leyen's leadership, and that she went behind his back to get French President Emmanuel Macron to find an alternative candidate.

Breton, a former private-sector CEO and minister who began as EU internal market commissioner in 2019 after the sudden withdrawal of MEP Sylvie Goulard, made plenty waves in office.

His portfolio expanded widely, covering topics from tech rules to critical materials and from covid vaccines to space laws.

But he had plenty of personal vendettas too: taking aim at people from big tech chiefs to his own colleagues, including his own boss. 

Here’s a few of his most memorable moments.

Breton most recently made headlines because of an online spat with Elon Musk, owner of X, the social network formally known as Twitter — and his contretemps with the world's richest man was brewing for a long time.

Breton went to Austin, Texas, in 2022 to discuss the EU's new online platform rules, the Digital Services Act (DSA), with Musk in person — but it seems their friendly relationship didn't last long. 

"In Europe, the bird will fly by our rules," Breton said a few months later in a social media post on — where else — Twitter, sending Musk a clear warning about his newly purchased network whose logo was a bird.

One year later, in December 2023, Breton’s team was investigating X for non-compliance with the EU's DSA, which binds big online platforms.

In August of this year, Breton also very publicly reminded Musk of his DSA