European Socialists, Greens, and Liberals will prevent the re-election of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen if she decides to co-operate with the ECR party after the June EU elections, Euractiv reports.
The parties were reacting to comments the European People’s Party (EPP) lead candidate von der Leyen made during the Maastricht Debate of leading candidates on April 29. She did not refuse to co-operate with the European Conservatives and Reformists group (ECR), the political family of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and the Polish Law and Justice (PiS) party.
“It depends very much on how the composition of the Parliament is and who is in what group. It’s the Parliament who makes majorities.”
The national-oriented forces, consisting of the EPP, ECR, and ID and making up the majority, may co-operate in the next term by trying to obstruct some legislative documents, as happened in the past with the nature restoration law.
The support of the Socialists, Liberals, and Greens is necessary for von der Leyen to be re-elected. However, they have already sent a warning in response to her ambiguity and emphasised that they will not sit at the negotiating table with the ECR.
We will never co-operate nor form a coalition with the far right! This also means: no co-operation or alliances with ECR or ID in the European Parliament.
The declaration by the Party of European Socialists (PES) was signed by National Socialist party leaders on May 4. The European Socialists demand that all parties include in the “party declaration” the same “formal and unequivocal” commitments against ECR and ID.
President of the Renew Europe group, Valérie Hayer, announced her opposition to any deal with national-oriented parties on Monday, May 6.
“I don’t know if she [von der Leyen] will be the candidate for the European Commission, but I have had the opportunity to tell her that if it should be her […] there should be no link, no negotiation with the ECR.”
The Greens were ready to support von der Leyen if she pursued an ambitious climate programme, European Greens lead candidate Terry Reintke, who is also co-president of the Greens group in the parliament, stated.
You can be sure that not only are we excluding forming a majority if the ECR is on board, but we are also going to put pressure on the other groups.
On February 21, when von der Leyen announced her re-election, she declared her readiness to work with any force that respected the three “red lines”: upholding European values, helping Ukraine and respecting the rule of law. She also emphasised that it remained to be seen what the balance of power in the future parliament would look like, noting the possibility of some ECR delegations moving to the EPP.
