Call me Ursula. Von der Leyen rebranded ahead of elections.

Think you know Ursula von der Leyen? Think again.

With the EU election just over a month away, von der Leyen’s team wants to transform the image of the European Commission president from a tough crisis-manager-in-chief to a more personal and warm mother and grandmother who wants her family to grow up in a safe Europe.

It’s a return to the family-forward and fun roots of the European People’s Party’s lead candidate, who has, since 2019, steered the bloc through the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent cost of living crisis.

Back in 2008, when she was the German family minister, von der Leyen let actor Hugh Jackman pull her out of a trashcan. It’s a stark contrast to the past five years, where she has become known for her self-discipline and for sleeping at the Commission’s headquarters while working long hours and weekends.

Now, she has a new campaign website in bright hues, along with a new logo — a circle of golden stars that references the flag of the European Union — and laden with a new ‘Ursula 2024’ slogan.

The “personal” element is key, Alexander Winterstein, the campaign’s chief spokesperson, told reporters on Friday.

“People know her as Commission president,” said Winterstein. “What people may know less about is who she actually is as a person … Who is Ursula von der Leyen?”

Statements on the campaign website are signed with von der Leyen’s handwritten autograph and on the website, she states that “as a mother of seven, I want my children’s children to grow in a safe, prosperous Europe.”

Will this new image of von der Leyen be on display during Monday’s Maastricht debate, the first debate between the lead candidates for the presidency of the European Commission? That’s where von der Leyen will have the opportunity to directly confront her challengers, including Anders Vistisen, the lead candidate of the far-right Identity and Democracy group.

#ProudGrandma

While the strategy to focus more on her personality and her family may surprise the Brussels bubble, it is not entirely new for von der Leyen.

Before making a surprise entry into European politics in 2019, the Brussels-born medical doctor’s personality and family life were well-known in German politics. She joined the first cabinet of former Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2005 as family minister after becoming labor minister in 2009. She took over the defense ministry in 2014, which was largely seen as a failure.

Throughout those years, von der Leyen regularly talked about herself and her family of seven children, particularly in her early years as family minister. Opponents criticized her for putting her family on display and using them for her own political advantage, they said.

In her early political years, von der Leyen openly discussed the difficulties of combining a career and parenthood as she was fighting for public daycare as a family minister. To this day, improving mothers’ ability to stay in the workforce remains a politically sensitive topic in German society.

In doing so, she potentially drew inspiration from her father Ernst Albrecht, a former German politician and top European civil servant, who regularly used his family in his campaigns. At one point, he even introduced his family on a TV show to let his wife and their children sing.

It’s unlikely von der Leyen will go this far.

“This is not a US-style presidential campaign,” said a spokesperson for the campaign who was granted anonymity to speak openly about the campaign. “For example, you won’t see the family.”

Still, “Ursula” has a few weeks left to pull off the transformation to #ProudGrandma.