BRUSSELS: France`s powerful European Union commissioner Thierry Breton abruptly resigned with a parting shot at the bloc`s chief on Monday, in a dramatic upset the day before Ursula von der Leyen unveils her new top team.

President Emmanuel Macron swiftly tapped Stephane Sejourne, his outgoing foreign minister and a close ally, to succeed Breton as Paris`s man at the EU.

One of the most influential figures in Brussels, Breton has been the bloc`s internal market commissioner since 2019 and has taken a hard line against abuses by the world`s biggest digital platforms including sparring publicly with Elon Musk. Put forward by Macron for a second term, Breton`s reappointment to a sizable commission role reflecting the country`s weight within the 27-nation bloc had been taken as a given.

But his abrasive relationship with his German boss von der Leyen who he publicly challenged on multiple occasions during her first five-year term appears to have proven untenable. While Breton`s announcement he was quitting came as a surprise, he presented it as the result of backroom manoeuvring by von der Leyen to have him pushed out.

`In the very final stretch of negotiations on the composition of the future College, you asked France to withdraw my name,` Breton wrote in a scorching letter to von der Leyen, shared on X. `In light of these latest developments further testimony to questionable governance I have to conclude that I can no longer exercise my duties in the College.` A former CEO of France Telecom, the 69-year-old Breton was seen by Paris as a key counterweight to Berlin`s influence at the heart of the EU.

He was the architect of the EU`s landmark rules demanding web giants better police content online something that led him to lock horns with Musk, the billionaire boss of X.-AFP