Silicon Valley's Worst Nightmare

What’s next for EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager?

- Jeff Muskus

South by Southwest long ago ceased to be just an annual film, tech, and music festival. The Austin conference—so popular it’s been known simply as SXSW for much of its 32 years—is now the haunt of ambitious politicians. This year they’ve come to bash the tech giants. At one event was Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who promised legislation that could break up Facebook Inc. or Alphabet Co.’s Google. At another was Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), who declared that she wants to make antitrust “cool again”—a clear swipe at the same companies. And then there was the European bureaucrat who’s won global notoriety and who probably more than almost anyone else makes U.S. technology executives quake in fear and anger: Margrethe Vestager.

No. The European Union’s commissioner for competition can’t run for the White House—though Warren and Klobuchar may envy her accomplishments. They’re only threatening to curb the internet titans; Vestager has already led an antitrust crackdown. But the Dane, whose five-year term is up this year, was clearly indicating that she wants to stay on the world stage. Usually a cautious speaker who keeps her own counsel, she was at a SXSW event on March 11 in a red satin dress and pale blue sneakers winning audiences with pointed humor. She said she eschews the kind of pantsuits that Hillary Clinton and Angela Merkel wear. “Men realize you’re a woman even if you dress like a man with a suitlike jacket and a white blouse,” she said. “So why bother? Better stay true to the value of diversity.” (Cheers from the crowd.)