The two groups furthest to the right in the European Parliament, Patriots for Europe and Europe of Sovereign Nations, led by Alternative for Germany, will not have vice-presidents in the European Parliament. The cordon sanitaire imposed by the moderate forces in the hemicycle (popular, social democrats, liberals and greens) has worked and has kept the most extremist groups out of the Bureau of this institution. However, the ultra-conservatives of Conservatives and Reformists of Europe (ECR) have not been isolated, which has obtained two of the 14 vice-presidencies of the European Parliament. This alliance has also served to make two Spaniards vice-presidents of the Parliament: Javi López, for the socialists, and Esteban González Pons, for the popular.
That this pact has worked, as well as the overwhelming result achieved by the Maltese conservative Roberta Metsola to be re-elected as president of the European Parliament, can be seen as a first sign that next Thursday Ursula von der Leyen could obtain the support of at least the 361 parliamentarians she needs to confirm her appointment as president of the European Commission for the second time. This was pointed out by parliamentary sources on Tuesday, who indicated that these first votes could serve as a test that the agreements that may be being reached between the central parties (European People’s Party, Socialists and Democrats, Liberals and Greens) are being applied.
Doubts about the solidity of the pacts had been growing on Tuesday morning, due to the manoeuvres of the European People’s Party to try to retain the presidency of the European Parliament for the entire legislative period, thus breaking with the unwritten custom of each halves being divided between the two largest groups (popular and social democrats). Finally, the situation was clarified in the early afternoon.
Given the agreement to curb the most extreme members of the European Parliament, Patriots for Europe (PfE), the group Fidesz, the party of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Vox or Marine Le Pen’s National Rally, has been able to do little. Being the third largest group in the Chamber has not been enough for its three candidates, including Fabrice Leggeri, former director of Frontex, the European border agency, who on June 9 was elected MEP on the National Rally lists, to win one of the vice-presidencies. The MEPs from Europe of Sovereign Nations, the group headed by Alternative for Germany, which was formed last week, have also been excluded from the vice-presidencies.
The cordon sanitaire has made room for the European Conservatives and Reformists, which includes Brothers of Italy, the party of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. This group, the fourth largest in the European Parliament, has won two vice-presidencies: the Italian Antonella Sberna and the Latvian Robert Zile.
In addition to these, there are a dozen other vice-presidents: three from the European People’s Party, the German Sabine Verheyen, the Polish Ewa Kopacz and the Spaniard Esteban González Pons; five from the Social Democrats, the German Katarina Barley, the Italian Pina Picierno, the Romanian Victor Negrescu, the Swedish Christel Schaldemose and the Spaniard Javi López; two from the Liberals, the Slovenian Martin Hojsik and the Belgian Sophie Wilmès, who was Prime Minister of her country; one from the Greens, the Romanian Nicolae Stefanuta; and one from the Left, the French Younous Omarjee.
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