Government debt during each Commission president's tenure

Every Commission president since 1991, ranked by how the government debt changed from their first day in office. Politare shows what happened during a tenure; it does not claim the office-holder caused it.

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Results

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#	Commission president	In office	Total	Per year
1	José Manuel Durão Barroso	22 Nov 2004 – 1 Nov 2014	+18.6 pp Q3 2004 → Q3 2014	+1.9 pp/yr
2	Ursula von der Leyen	1 Dec 2019 – now	+4.0 pp Q3 2019 → Q2 2026	+0.6 pp/yr
3	Romano Prodi	16 Sep 1999 – 22 Nov 2004 from Q1 2000	−0.9 pp Q1 2000 → Q3 2004	−0.2 pp/yr
4	Jean-Claude Juncker	1 Nov 2014 – 1 Dec 2019	−8.3 pp Q3 2014 → Q3 2019	−1.7 pp/yr

Sorted by total, highest first. Every row is indexed to the last quarter complete before the first day in office ("from" marks a start that had to move because that period had no data, or because the period cut it); Levels are per cent changes, rates are differences in pp; "per year" compounds levels and divides rates. Tenures with under 12 months, or under three observations, are left out. % of GDP · Eurostat (gov_10q_ggdebt), general government consolidated gross debt · European Union data · as of Sep 2026.