2024-07-19 08:15:24
On Thursday, the European Parliament confirmed Ursula von der Leyen as President of the European Commission for another five-year term in a secret election. The German politician received 401 votes, announced the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsolaová. The European Parliament has 720 members, so von der Leyen needed at least 361 votes.
A total of 707 MEPs voted today. 284 voted against keeping von der Leyen in office, 15 abstained from voting. Seven votes were invalid.
“The next five years. I can’t even express how grateful I am to all the MEPs who voted for me,” von der Leyen wrote on the X social network. In front of journalists, she also thanked the European Parliament for their cooperation in the previous five years.
The elected president of the commission will now send official letters to the heads of the EU member states. She invites them to suggest their candidates for her new team. Possible European commissioners will then undergo a hearing before the committees of the European Parliament in the autumn, which then confirms the commission as a whole in one vote. Von der Leyen said at the press conference that she wanted the “best prepared candidates” and an equal representation of men and women. He wants to meet and talk with the candidates from mid-August.
In a speech before the vote on Thursday morning, Von der Leyen tried to convince as many MEPs as possible to vote for her. She relied on the support of the European People’s Party (EPP), to which she politically belongs, the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) faction and the liberals from Renew Europe. However, she did not have the necessary number of votes in the secret ballot, where MEPs had the opportunity to vote independently of the faction.
The Greens also joined von der Leyen’s side, for which she thanked them at the press conference after her election. On the contrary, Patriots for Europe (Patriots for Europe) stated in advance that they would not support it. The Left in the European Parliament (GUE/NGL) expressed the same opinion. The conservative ECR faction said before the vote that they had not been convinced by the head of the commission and that most national delegations would vote against her. But the faction reminded that voting is free, which means that everyone can vote according to their personal discretion.
At the moment when Metsola announced to the plenary in Strasbourg how many MEPs voted in favor, there was applause in the hall. While the representatives of the EPP celebrated, their colleagues from the newly formed group of Patriots, sitting next to them, remained seated without much reaction. With a smile on her face, Von der Leyen made gestures of thanks and first hugged EPP chief Manfred Weber.
The 65-year-old German politician won about 56 percent of the vote, which is more than five years ago. At that time, 51 percent of MEPs voted for her.
On Thursday, before voting began, the left asked that the election be postponed until the September meeting. She justified this by Wednesday’s verdict of the EU court, which decided that the European Commission did not provide the public with sufficient access to contracts for the purchase of vaccines against covid-19. The representative of the EPP faction argued that the verdict concerned the commission as an institution, not its individuals. The majority of MEPs subsequently rejected the postponement request in a vote.
“Hearty congratulations on your re-election,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz wrote on the X network, according to whom von der Leyen’s confirmation in office is a clear sign that political leaders in the union are capable of acting even in difficult times. “Europeans expect us to move Europe forward. Let’s do it together,” he added. Von der Leyen was also congratulated by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.
Prime Minister Petr Fiala (ODS) also agrees with the re-elected President of the European Commission in the strong emphasis on the competitiveness of the European Union and on security, as he stated on the X. Von der Leyen network, the outgoing European Commissioner Věra Jourová also congratulated her. “She was able to navigate us courageously through crises. A stronger second mandate is an appreciation of her hard work and results. It’s good news for Europeans,” he believes.
Czech MEP Klára Dostálova from the Patriots for Europe faction did not support the new head of the European Commission. “I didn’t support her and I have two reasons for that. I was waiting for her speech and I have to say that it seemed to me that Ms. Ursula von der Leyen probably didn’t notice that there were elections. The speech was about continuing as how it is set up, which will be a big disappointment for many voters,” Dostálova said.
According to her, the second reason is that the head of the European Commission did not even bother to come to the Patriots for Europe faction in the days before the election to discuss her priorities with its representatives. The current head of the EU executive, Dostálové, is annoyed by “where she has led Europe”. “Many entrepreneurs are running away from Europe, we are dependent on third countries, we are an overregulated continent,” she listed.
The head of the European Commission has made no secret of the fact that she wants to win over representatives of the Green faction to her side. But they were waiting to see how their demands would be reflected in the program of the next European Commission. Czech pirate MEP Markéta Gregorová finally gave her vote to von der Leyen. “After careful consideration, I finally decided to support Ursula von der Leyen. In five years, she fulfilled a large part of what she promised and, moreover, proved that she is capable of leading the commission in times of crisis,” said Gregorová. She appreciated that von der Leyen strongly stood up for Ukraine and that the EU had clearly disengaged from Russian fossil resources.
According to ČTK findings, eight Czech MEPs supported the head of the European Commission, 11 of them voted against, and one, Alexandr Vondra from the conservative ECR faction, did not reveal his choice.