Respecting the forecast of the eve but after much stomach ache, the plenary assembly of theEuropean Parliament voted in the end confidence to the von der Leyen Commission bis. The number of votes explains better than anything else the criticality of a situation that will accompany the work of the new European executive from 1 December and for the next five years, which will be characterised by majorities "a' la carte" on every single measure. The result of that "two-oven" logic of which he was the supreme director as group leader of the EPP, Manfred weber, and which will aim to seek, depending on the case, the support of the conservatives of ECR or the Greens. The crossed vetoes between the EPP and the socialists placed on the candidacies of Raffaele Fitto and Teresa Ribera they were then surpassed but at a very high price.
New EU Commission: Here are the votes of von der Leyen bis
The college of commissioners has in fact obtained 370 votes in favor, 282 against and 36 abstentions, with 688 voters (out of 719 members). On 18 July Ursula von der Leyen was re-elected President of the Commission with 401 votes in favour. In November 2019, von der Leyen's previous team had obtained 461 votes from an assembly of 705 parliamentarians, almost a hundred more than today. The result obtained is the worst ever recorded in a vote on a team of commissioners compared to other votes of confidence for the previous European Commissions, from that of Jacques Santer in 1995 (417 votes in favour out of 626 total seats), to those of Romano Prodi in 1999 (510 out of 626), of Jose Manuel Barroso in 2004 (478 out of 732), again by Barroso in 2010 (488 out of 736), by Jean-Claud Juncker in 2014 (423 out of 751).
The largest defections were recorded in EPP (21 votes against, especially from the Spanish of the Partido Popular, and two abstentions) and among the Socialists and Democrats (25 against, especially French and Belgian, including the two independent Italians elected with the PD Road and Tarquinio, and 18 abstentions, including the German socialists). In the other group of the old “Ursula Majority”, that of the liberals of Renew, almost all voted in favour, except for six abstentions (Irish and Belgians).
Partial support from the Greens: 19 MEPs from the group voted against (including the Italians Marino, Orlando and Scuderi), and six abstained; three rows of the Conservatives of the Ecr group, which had left freedom of choice to its members, voted in favour of 33 (including all the Italians of FdI), while those against were 40 (including the Poles of Pis), and four abstained. All MEPs from the Left group voted unanimously against the confidence, including the Italians Lucano and Salis (Italian Left) and the eight elected members of the M5S Antoci, Della Valle, Furore, Morace, Palmisano, Pedullà, Tamburrano and Tridico. The two far-right groups, the Patriots for Europe (including all the MEPs of the League) and the Sovereignists of the Esn group (Europe of sovereign nations), also unanimously voted against the confidence.
New EU Commission: What Happens Now
Despite all this, in the press conference, together with the President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola, von der Leyen argued that "it is a good day for Europe. The vote shows that the centre holds up”. “I am very grateful for the confidence expressed by the Parliament in the new College – added the President of the Commission – the vote passed with 370 votes in favour, 282 against and 36 abstentions allows us to start on 1 December. It is time to prepare, we are eager to start, and it is imperative to do so because time is running out. We are facing major political challenges, within our Union, at our borders, in our neighbourhood. We need to strengthen our competitiveness and the impact of climate change is increasingly felt”. Von der Leyen said she was happy “to be able to count on a strong and experienced team”.
On the appointment of Raffaele Fitto As Vice President, von der Leyen explained: “I want European regions and communities to be able to control their own destiny and to contribute to shaping our policies. This is the task of cohesion and reform that I have entrusted to Fitto as Executive Vice President. It is a choice that I made. Also because I know how crucial it is to give regions the political importance they deserve”.
According to the president of the European Movement Piervirgilio Dastoli, “since numbers also count in politics, it is worth pointing out that von der Leyen had 93 fewer votes than in November 2019, one hundred and thirty more against and thirty-one fewer votes than the confidence obtained on 18 July. The institutional chaos, her ambiguities and the leopard method have not benefited her image and her authority. On 18 July, the confidence was greeted with flowers and applause and today the hemicycle was stunned and silent”.
According to the Minister of Foreign Affairs (and former President of the European Parliament) Antonio Tajani, today there was a “good result” with the European Parliament’s green light to Ursula von der Leyen’s new Commission. The minister wished the President of the EU Commission “good work”. “Fewer votes? Some socialists will not have voted. The important thing is that he starts. Fitto will do very well”.
The Five Star Movement has a different opinion, according to which "a very weak and right-wing Commission is born, the worst that could happen to us. Very weak because it is supported by a majority that contains everything and the opposite of everything and that will split at the first possible vote, not by chance it obtained fewer votes than those relating to the election of its President in July".
