Sánchez will support Von der Leyen if he continues in Moncloa and the European Commission remains in the hands of the EPP

2023-07-04 16:23:05

Pedro Sánchez wants the German Ursula von der Leyen to continue at the head of the European Commission if he does so at the head of the Spanish Government after the general elections on July 23 and the European People’s Party, which is currently the first force in the Eurochamber, wins the European elections. The head of the Executive does not usually skimp on flattery towards the conservative leader in his public interventions and he has not done so either in an informal conversation with the correspondents who are in Madrid on the occasion of the start of the Spanish presidency of the Council of the EU in which he has praised the way of working of the current head of the community executive.

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In that talk, Sánchez has confessed that the former Defense Minister with Angela Merkel will be his preference if the Social Democrats have no chance of taking over the presidency of the European Commission and it remains in the hands of the EPP again. This positioning occurs, however, before Von der Leyen herself has defoliated the daisy about what her claims are because she has not yet said if she intends to continue presiding over the community executive.

Nor has the European People’s Party decided who would be its bet to lead the College of Commissioners that will be held after the European elections next year. In 2019 the top candidates Manfred Weber, also a German, was from the PPE, but he was left out in the negotiation with the governments of the 27, who opted for Von der Leyen, who obtained the support of the socialists and liberals in the European Parliament.

Now the EPP, led by Weber, has been distanced from Von der Leyen for some time, whom they accuse of having followed the guidelines of the social democrats and liberals more than their own ranks. The conservatives will have to start their process to choose the candidate for the presidency of the European Commission and, in addition to Weber, one of the names that is on the table is that of the president of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola. The PP of Alberto Núñez Feijóo leans towards the Maltese, according to sources from the Spanish delegation.

Sánchez’s harmony with Von der Leyen was once again publicly evident this Monday during the press conference after the Government’s meeting with the Council of Commissioners: “This Commission has lived up to the challenges that we have faced even when circumstances have put it on them, they have put it on all of us, very difficult ”.

Von der Leyen has also habitually defended the management of the Government of Spain, which he sets as an example on numerous occasions since it is the country that is in the lead with regard to the execution of European funds. The leader herself took advantage of her appearance in Madrid to defend the management that the European Commission has done, but also to get away from the drift of her party. “When we talk about extremism, both on the right and on the left, they fear change. We, the democratic groups of the center, have to show that we have very clear ideas when it comes to facing change”, Von der Leyen defended at a time when his party has abandoned the sanitary cordon to the extreme right, with the that governs in Italy within the government of the far-right Giorgia Meloni, and on which it relies in countries like Sweden and Finland, beyond the agreements that, for now, have been made at the municipal and regional level in Spain.

Von der Leyen’s claim also smacked of self-defense in the face of the battle his party is now waging against some of the key policies of the European Commission. Weber’s conservatives have voted against the nature restoration law, which is one of the pillars of the pending green agenda and which seeks to recover ecosystems by 2050. In an unusual move, the European EPP voted against of that proposal from Brussels in the Eurochamber and now the Plenary will have the final decision.

“We, the core of the democratic group, must show that we have clear ideas on how to deal with the changes that are taking place,” added Von der Leyen before praising some initiatives promoted by the EU in recent years. “We have a clear idea of ​​what is happening. Climate change is a fact, we have an idea and a vision of how to deal with it”, defended the German.