Not even a month has passed since his re-election as head of the Commission, and Ursula von der Leyen is once again faced with a Eurochamber in turmoil. I crossed vetoesthe bipartisan discontent and the question of pink quotas have forced the president of the EU executive to postpone the presentation of her new team by a week. The pressure on von der Leyen and the idea of assigning the Executive Vice-Presidency to Raffaele Fitto has reached very high levels: “With Ecr at the heart of the Commission, we will not vote for it”, warned the socialists.
The team presentation is now scheduled for September 17th at Strasbourgat the beginning of a plenary session that promises to be very heated. Formally, the postponement is due to the fact that the Slovenian Parliament will vote for its new candidate only on Friday, Martha Kosafter the renunciation of Tomaz Vesel. However, the issue of gender quotas only partially hides the chaos surrounding von der Leyen’s appointments. The risk is that an alliance will form between socialists, liberals And greens against the minister for the EU Affairsthe CohesionThe South and the Pnrr. All three groups, who elected von der Leyen despite the conservativesare against a further Europeanisation of ECR and want the new Commission to reflect the majority European Parliament.
«Ignoring the process of Spitzencandidatundermine the gender balance in the college, put an employment commissioner whose commitment to the social rights It is debatable, and proactively bringing the ECR into the heart of the Commission: this would be the recipe for losing the support of progressives”, he declared Iratxe Garcia Perez.
The S&D Group is pushing for von der Leyen to convince the Luxembourg to nominate the socialist Spitzenkandidat, Nicholas Schmittinstead of the popular Christophe Hansen; wants the wallet for the Social Affairs (which according to rumours could go to a Popular Party) and is against Fitto as executive vice-president. However, the socialist galaxy is not completely united, with the delegations German And French that oppose each other. The line of the PD is softer: after a meeting of MEPs, the party declared that it “will evaluate Fitto without prejudice” and clarified that it was not the Italians who raised the issue of the Melonian minister. However, the same Elly Schlein he hardened the Democrats’ position, underlining that “von der Leyen will have to take into account the majority that voted for her in Parliament”.
In the meantime, at Ostendi liberals gathered in the study days They called for Commissioners to be independent from their governments and to demonstrate a European commitment. Greens have expressed a position similar to that of S&D and Renewwith the aim of maintaining the axis. Otherwise, it would be difficult for ecologists to oppose it alone.
The PPE maintains a cautious silence but has already asked von der Leyen to limit the powers of Teresa Riberathe Spanish socialist destined for the executive vice-presidency with responsibility for Competition. Among the Populars, there is no second thoughts about Fitto, considered a man of dialogue, trained in a moderate center-right, and a passepartout to bring the Meloni government closer to the EPP line. Between now and Tuesday, von der Leyen will have to convince the other three groups of the majority, and subsequently it will be up to the commissioners to convince the MEPs. For everyone, Fitto included, no mistakes are allowed.