The Popular Party, supported by its European group colleagues (EPP), has launched an all-out war against the still vice president of the Spanish Government, Teresa Ribera, to cover up her regional management of the dana in Valencia. The maneuvers of the conservatives block the vote to appoint the Spanish minister as vice president for one of the most powerful positions in the EU and threaten the formation of the new European Commission of Ursula von der Leyen, which must take office on December 1. December.
The Popular Europeans (EPP) of Manfred Weber, who want to weaken Ribera and have maneuvered to block her appointment, demand that the Spanish minister commit to resign if she is charged in a judicial process for the dana. The fight for the social democrat – and incidentally for the appointment of the Italian far-right Raffaele Fitto and the Hungarian extremist Oliver Varhelyi -, the politicization of the Spanish debate in the European Parliament and the process of forming the new Community Executive have reached unprecedented heights in this case. Brussels. What happened with Ribera plunges the implementation of the new Commission into uncertainty.
There are six vice presidents and one commissioner pending the green light from the parliamentary committees. But for now, although the dialogue continues, the negotiations are practically paralyzed, parliamentary sources say. “The EPP has broken trust,” say social democratic sources, who accuse the popular party of allying with the extreme right against Ribera and of breaking the pact they had reached with them and the liberals of Renew to vote en bloc for the vice presidents and that no group could take a commissioner from another party hostage like this.
The idea was to make that evaluation this Wednesday. But now the popular ones demand that Ribera first give explanations in the Congress of Deputies and assure there that she will resign if she is prosecuted – something that the regular procedure of her party, the socialist, already contemplates in any case. The Minister of Ecological Transition herself requested that appearance, which is scheduled in Madrid for Wednesday the 20th.
Delaying his vote and that of the rest of the remaining commissioners until then is a dangerous game for Weber. It is also twisting the arm of the president of the European Commission, the German conservative Ursula von der Leyen. Not only because he is in a hurry to form the new Community Executive in a burning international situation, with the victory of Donald Trump and the prospect of an escalation of tariffs on European products, and because of Russia’s war against Ukraine; also because she has named Ribera as her number two.
The German also maintains confidence in Ribera. “She is the one designated by the Spanish authorities to be commissioner,” said a spokesperson for the Community Executive. “The European Parliament has a hearing process underway, and the president has given her confidence to Ribera and has appointed her as vice president,” he added, while specifying that nothing has changed in this area after the dana disaster in Valencia.
Von der Leyen met on Wednesday with the leaders of the EPP, Social Democrats and Liberals to try to unravel the agreement. He didn’t make it. The dialogue has not been broken, but there are no formal negotiations and it is possible that nothing will be resolved until next week, after Ribera’s appearance. That would be a victory for the Spanish Popular Party, which is managing to bring the national debate to the Brussels forum and muddy the appointment of Ribera, historic for Spain.
Social democratic counterweight
Pedro Sánchez’s minister, designated as first vice president for the Green, Clean and Fair Transition and in charge of the powerful Competition portfolio in Brussels, is the big piece to collect. Ribera, who is the social democratic counterweight to a very right-wing European Commission, faced harsh criticism from the EPP and the Vox ultras for the dana on Tuesday, in the hearing in the European Parliament on their portfolios.
The case and the hearing with Ribera – angry, harsh, the most bitter of all that the commissioners have gone through in these two weeks – is one more example that the balance and the majorities in the European Parliament have changed. And they have turned to the right. Now the EPP is the most powerful group and can decide where it goes to seek a majority. He has already broken the sanitary cordon and has agreed with the extreme right in several cases, from a budget resolution in which he defended deportation centers for asylum seekers outside the EU to the recognition of Edmundo González as the “legitimate president” of Venezuela .
The majority of EPP, social democrats and liberals (along with the Greens), who carried out the vote to approve a second term of Von der Leyen, and which has traditionally held the European Parliament at the center for decades, may have its days numbered.
The popular ones also want to make visible that they have the key to all the majorities. “Ribera spoke [durante su audiencia] as if it only depended on the left, the greens and the green part of the liberals,” said EPP MEP Peter Liese. “He has not indicated that he is seeking the support of the largest group in the European Parliament,” he added.
The popular Spaniards, who face problems due to the actions of the presidentof the Valencian Community, Carlos Mazón, during the dana, followed a strategy of total war against Ribera. Creating noise in Brussels and buying the argument that she is to blame for the poor management of the floods can distract from the story that has put Mazón in the spotlight, who sent the alert to citizens when there were already flooded towns and it happened the afternoon of the day of the disaster at a meal with a journalist.
With this maneuver, the PP wants to leave Ribera affected and have an impact on the central government. And, for now, his fellow European conservatives, led by Weber, have joined the game. The EPP aspires to gain power in Europe if the popular Spaniards advance in Spain. European sources believe that Weber, who already had a bitter confrontation with Pedro Sánchez at the end of last year in the European Parliament, wants with the Ribera case to also weaken the Spanish president, the only socialist leader with weight left in the European Council, since that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is in a very bad position and the Social Democrats face early elections in Germany next February.
The situation is critical. The EPP blocks Ribera and at the same time, the Social Democrats assure that they will not vote in favor of the Italian vice president chosen by Giorgia Meloni or the Hungarian one; These, in any case, could succeed only with the majority of conservatives and far-right forces. And the popular ones, who want to share the weight of the load, demand that these two pieces also be part of the package. “What happened [con Ribera] It represents a before and after. The breaking of the pact changes everything,” say the social democrats. “Today the European project is more at risk than a week ago due to the irresponsibility of the EPP, which has decided to change the majorities,” they add.
Meanwhile, the head of Renew in the European Parliament, Valérie Hayer, has warned that the negotiations are in danger of falling apart. “We denounce and regret the irresponsible actions of all political forces that do not contribute to a responsible and reliable solution,” he said this Wednesday in a brief appearance before the press in the European Parliament, in which he urged the president of the Commission to act “to build bridges”.
Delaying evaluations puts the calendar on edge. Von der Leyen’s idea is that the Commission begins its functions on December 1, but for that it has to receive the green light from the entire European Parliament in a special vote in the plenary session at the end of November. “Hustling puts the risk that if there is any problem there will be no room for maneuver,” say social democratic sources.
The president of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, who has also mobilized to see if she can calm things down with a meeting with the heads of the political groups, is confident that the negotiation will not break down and downplays the fact that it could occur. some delay. “The European Parliament will vote on the next Commission on November 27. There is still time,” he predicts in a written comment sent to Morning Express. “This House is fully committed to the creation of the new Commission. It is our responsibility and we take it very seriously, especially when we look at what is happening around the world,” he points out.
“The first months of any new legislature are always difficult, but the important thing is that we work together. We need stability in times of change,” he claims. And he adds: “What citizens expect from us is that we deliver on continued aid to Ukraine, on European competitiveness and on the next long-term EU budget.”
