“He keeps us posted about what’s being hotly debated in Brussels and how it affects us, and then we tend to describe, from our perspective, what the issues are within companies, as seen from the employees’ point of view,” said Thorsten Gröger, who leads IG Metall in Lower Saxony and has known Lange for over 20 years.
Putting on a show
Those roots still shape Lange’s negotiating tactics and political style.
While not by nature confrontational, he is capable of raising his voice behind closed doors to advocate for European industry and labor. He is also a master of detail — be it in the legislative amendments he drafts, or the poems he writes in the Christmas cards he sends each year.
“Sometimes, when he gets really angry at the Commission or the Council, I don’t think he’s putting on a show — precisely because he’s deeply committed to respecting the division of powers and to ensuring that the Parliament is well informed,” said Marie-Pierre Vedrenne, a former liberal MEP who worked with Lange for six years on the trade committee and is now a minister delegate at the French interior ministry.
“One of [his] strengths is that if he is convinced of something, he’s willing to use a lot of time,” said Daniel Caspary, a former EPP MEP who is now at the European Court of Auditors.
But for some, that conscientious approach amounts to a delaying tactic, which in the case of Turnberry risked a transatlantic blow-up.