European Commission Secretary-General Martin Selmayr will leave his post next week | Thierry Monasse/Getty Images Exclusive: Martin Selmayr to leave powerful Commission post ‘next week’ Next secretary-general is likely to be a Frenchman, says German official.

STRASBOURG — European Commission Secretary-General Martin Selmayr said he will leave his post "at the end of next week" to quell concerns about a German-dominated EU executive.

Selmayr told POLITICO's Brussels Playbook late on Monday that he spoke to Ursula von der Leyen — the German nominee for European Commission president — to talk about his resignation when she first came to Strasbourg to meet MEPs two weeks ago.

“I told her that this issue would come up, and that she’d have to respond, regardless of me,” Selmayr said. “I told her: The most important thing now is that you win this vote.”

Von der Leyen is hoping to secure a majority in the European Parliament on Tuesday evening to confirm her nomination. She needs 374 votes to achieve that, but faces fierce criticism from members of several groups — including the German Social Democrats in the Socialists & Democrats group — who disagree with the European Council's decision to nominate her for the position.

She hinted on Monday that Selmayr, who is considered one of the most powerful behind-the-scenes operators in the EU, would leave if she becomes Commission president.

His departure is a concession to critics worried about too many German officials at the highest echelons of the European Commission and also a reflection of criticism from MEPs and others about his promotion to secretary-general last year.

Selmayr's elevation from the post of President Jean-Claude Juncker's chief of staff to the Commission's top civil servant angered many in Parliament, which adopted a resolution calling on him to resign. Following a five-month investigation, European Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly found the Commission had “stretched and possibly even overstretched the limits of the law" by handing Selmayr a swift two-step promotion. The Commission rejected the criticism.

Asked whom he expects to replace him, Selmayr said the next secretary-general is likely to be a Frenchman. "This Commission is a Franco-German project, and that's a good thing," he said, and nodded at the suggestion that Olivier Guersent, the Commission's director general for financial services, might be a front-runner to succeed him.

Selmayr said he "won't stay in Brussels," suggesting that one and a half decades in the EU executive had been enough.

"I'm looking forward to a long holiday," he said.

Asked where he would go after his vacation, he replied, "Austria."