The government of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez labelled the Partido Popular’s (PP) boycott of Teresa Ribera as “shameful” and “anti-patriotic,” Euractiv reported.
Ribera, Spain’s incumbent Minister of Environmental Transition, was chosen by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to be the future Commissioner for Competition and Vice-President of the Commission for a Clean, Fair and Competitive Transition.
However, Partido Popular leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo urged the Sánchez government to withdraw Ribera’s candidacy in Brussels on Wednesday. Despite calls to propose “another person who has the support of Spanish society,” European Commission spokesman Eric Mamer said von der Leyen strongly supported Ribera and other candidates.
The president has given her confidence to all the candidates for the post of Commissioner, and the process of their confirmation is underway. Obviously, nothing has changed from that initial position.
Jorge Buxadé, an MEP for the Vox party, the third largest force in parliament, criticised Ribera’s choice even more harshly, recalling devastating floods in Valencia.
We have seen criminal politicians in the government of the nation and incapable politicians in the government of the region (of Valencia).
Labour Minister Yolanda Díaz of Sumar noted that what happened on Tuesday at the Ribera hearing in the European Parliament was “an unprecedented case in which the PP always acts against its own country”. Another Sumar member, Social Rights Minister Pablo Bustinduy, also criticised the PP.
It is shameful to use the political moment in Spain (with the tragedy in Valencia) to try to pursue political ends.
The political dispute in Spain sparked the interest of politicians from other countries. The French Les Républicains party’s François-Xavier Bellamy also commented on the appointment of Teresa Ribera as EU Commissioner.
