The shift to the right in Europe is also taking shape in the European executive. The new European Commission, which is expected to be presented on Tuesday by the German conservative Ursula von der Leyen, will be the most right-wing in recent decades, with a significant number of commissioners from the European People’s Party and in which Italy, governed by the far right, is running for one of the vice-presidencies. The Spanish Teresa Ribera is emerging as executive vice-president with the portfolio of Competition and Green and Social Transition, according to community sources, one of the most substantial. The current third vice-president and Spanish Minister for Ecological Transition will be the only socialist with an important position in a team that could also take a significant step backwards in terms of equality, with fewer women.
With a European Parliament with a strong far-right presence – divided into at least three groups – and a European Council (the member states, which are also the ones who appoint their commissioners) in which at least six of its leaders are from the far right or are in office thanks to coalitions with far-right parties, the shift that is already noticeable in the capitals will also be felt in the new Commission on migration and environmental issues. In fact, the change was already visible in the last period of the Commission of the popular Von der Leyen, who has hardened the tone on immigration and has received criticism for moving to lighten the green agenda.
President von der Leyen, re-elected last July thanks largely to the support of the Greens, will have 15 Popular Party commissioners: five liberals, four socialists, two from the far right (the Netherlands, governed by the ultra-right Geert Wilders, has decided to keep the conservative Wopke Hoekstra) and one independent, Maros Sefcovic, who answers to the Slovak national-populist Robert Fico.
The Party of European Socialists and the Socialists and Democrats group in the European Parliament have warned the head of the EU executive that she should not take their support for the new team for granted if the leadership structure shifts to the right. The commissioners need the backing of the European Parliament’s committees.
The Socialists reject the fact that Von der Leyen has appointed a far-right commissioner such as Raffaele Fitto, appointed by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, from the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group, to one of her executive vice-presidencies, which, according to EU sources, is likely to be one with an economic content. They had demanded that her Spitzenkandidat(leading candidate to preside over the Commission), Luxembourg’s Nicolas Schmit, was nominated as Commissioner by his country, but his government (centre-right in coalition) has rejected him despite pressure that has even come from the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz.
“Ignoring the process of the Spitzenkandidaten“, undermining gender balance in schools, appointing as Employment Commissioner someone with a questionable record of commitment to social rights and proactively placing the ECR group at the heart of the Commission will be a recipe for losing progressive support,” said the president of the Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament, Iratxe García.
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The second term of the Von der Leyen Commission has started in a tumultuous manner. Not only because of the German Commission’s problems in achieving gender balance – it asked the Member States for two names to be able to balance the pieces in an equal way and only one, Bulgaria, responded to the request – something that does not seem to be a priority at all for the governments of the majority of the 27 EU partners, which have only proposed (unless there were any last-minute changes) 10 commissioners; also because of the problems that have arisen with Slovenia and France.
The former has not yet succeeded in getting the national parliamentary committee to review the nomination of the proposed person, Marta Kos, although this might not stop the German: that vote in Slovenia is not binding. Paris has been the protagonist of a political soap opera with the resounding resignation of his chosen one to continue as commissioner, Thierry Breton, who has alleged that Von der Leyen manoeuvred to prevent his appointment with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, for “personal reasons”. Paris has appointed the liberal Stéphane Séjourné in his place, rejecting another opportunity to appoint a woman to balance the Commission. Von der Leyen has put pressure on the member states to send more women, but she has done so above all with small countries, such as Slovenia, which heeded the request, Bulgaria or Romania. With the change, France will obtain an important executive vice-presidency, that of Competitiveness and Prosperity, according to community sources.
