Green light to the most right-wing European Commission in recent decades. The European Parliament confirmed this Wednesday, with 370 votes in favor of a total of 688 votes cast, the new community Executive of Ursula von der Leyen, with the Spanish Teresa Ribera as number two, with a powerful green vice presidency and the Competition portfolio. The majority has been very tight: it has had 282 votes against.
The Popular Party of Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who maneuvered against Ribera to cover up the management of the dana of the regional government of Valencia (in the hands of the PP), to the point of requesting his replacement, and who achieved the support of his family for a few days European Union, the EPP, which blocked the appointment, has finally broken away from the majority of its group. The 22 MEPs of the Popular Party have voted against, according to the vote count. All this despite the fact that the European Parliament gave its support to the European Government team with the most commissioners from its conservative family in recent decades: 14 out of 27, among them, President Von der Leyen.
Thus, Feijóo’s PP begins the legislature juggling. “We, the PP, say ‘yes’ to the Commission and ‘no’ to Teresa Ribera,” said popular MEP Dolors Montserrat. “She has been the vice president of a Government that is involved in a corruption scandal,” she launched. And he added: “As loyal members of the EPP we support this Commission.”
The vote, however, ended up being negative. The Spanish are the second largest group of the conservative family after the Germans. The PP’s decision constitutes a symbolic no, but also a no to its European political family. Feijóo’s supporters argue that with the appointment of Ribera, Spain is “exporting a problem” and that although Von der Leyen will have their support, they cannot “expressly” support a college of commissioners that includes the Spanish.
In contrast to this attitude of the PP, Von der Leyen has had – in the presentation speech of her new team in the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, prior to the vote – numerous praises for Ribera, questioned by her conservative political family. European. “It is well prepared to ensure that we have a modern competition policy that supports our ambitions,” said the German. “[Ribera] She is a true and committed Europeanist. And together we will always work for the European interest,” she said of her first vice president to applause from the plenary. In his seat, the president of the EPP, Manfred Weber – who supported Feijóo’s maneuvers against Ribera until he ended up disavowing it and voted for Ribera – observed with a serious expression.
“We have to avoid polarization,” the Bavarian said this Wednesday, who, however, has tried to exploit the discourse that social democrats and liberals have also reached out to part of the extreme right that he has embraced, the Reformist family. and European Conservatives (ECR) – that of the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni – with their support for the Italian Vice President, Raffaele Fitto, and the Hungarian Commissioner Olivér Varhelyi, an ally of the national-populist Viktor Orbán, as part of the pact to unblock the formation of the Commission —including Ribera—.
Weber has stressed that his intention is to continue his traditional collaboration with social democrats and liberals – with whom he signed a pact to advance the lines set by Von der Leyen for the legislature – and even with the Greens, but also with ECR, which the Bavarian unlike other far-right groups and parties, such as the Alternative for Germany (AfD).
“The yes of the social democratic family is a yes to continue moving forward, for European stability, it is not a blank check,” answered Iratxe García, president of the Socialists and Democrats (S&D). “The European forces that have built the EU since its foundation have an agreement, and the agreements are fulfilled,” warned the Spaniard, who has insisted that she will not tolerate the constant approach of the conservatives to the extreme right.
“The negotiation has not been easy, you will not have 100% support from this House or even from my group, but in this House there is a majority that wants to build a European majority,” García insisted during his speech in Strasbourg. “There have been people who have tried to destabilize this Commission by putting their partisan interests first,” remarked the president of the Social Democrats in the European Parliament, alluding to the PP.
After the weeks of crisis, Von der Leyen, who has also staked her political capital in the European parliamentary fight and has been very involved in her team moving forward without changes, has called for unity. “I know it has not been easy, but overcoming divisions and forging compromises is the hallmark of any living democracy,” said the head of the community Executive. “We will work with all the pro-European democratic forces in this House. And, as I have done in my first mandate, I will always work from the center, because we all want the best for Europe and the best for Europeans. So now is the time to unite,” he launched.
polarized legislature
The legislature that begins is approaching angry and polarized. As has been the confirmation process of the new commissioners, where Spanish national politics, due to the PP’s fight against Ribera, has shaken the community institutions. The new Commission that launches this December 1st does so in a geopolitical scenario of high tension, with Russia’s war against Ukraine at a critical point, the prospect of an escalation of US tariffs against European products after the arrival of Donald Trump to the White House and with a European Union that continues to lose competitiveness and influence compared to Washington and Beijing.
The next five years will be decisive for the future of the EU, and the President of the Commission has anticipated that it will be necessary to make “difficult decisions” and make “massive investments in security and prosperity.” “We need a single market for defense. We need to strengthen the defense industrial base. We need to improve our military mobility,” remarked the German conservative, who is now beginning her second term. This community Executive, for the first time, will have a Defense Commissioner. Although it remains a competence of the Member States, the position aims to boost European industry.
Furthermore, Von der Leyen has announced that the first major initiative of her mandate will be a “competitiveness compass, following the pattern of the report by former Italian Prime Minister and former President of the European Central Bank Mario Draghi, who warned that, if it does not accelerate , the Union will enter a “slow agony” against the United States and China.
This new compass of competitiveness — which will be built around three pillars: innovation, decolonization and competitiveness, and economic security — will be one of the key tasks of the new team, and especially of Ribera, vice president of Clean, Fair and Competitive Transition and Responsible for the Competition portfolio.
