The voting in Strasbourg at lunchtime on Thursday creates cracks all over the parliament.
Not least between The Moderate Party and SD, the tone is sharp.
– We will vote yes to no confidence. Ursula von der Leyen has used up her trust, says Charlie Weimers (SD) to TT.
– This is the opposite of government ability. This is a gift to Trump and to Putin, counters Tomas Tobé (The Moderate Party).
Long process
Even within SD's party group ECR, there is division, where the Italian Brothers do not want to bring down the commission at all, unlike, for example, SD and the Polish Law and Justice.
The vote has been driven by a Romanian member of the ECR, formally in protest against how von der Leyen handled the procurement of vaccines during the corona pandemic.
If the parliament brings her down, the entire EU Commission must resign and a long process is initiated where first the EU countries' leaders must propose a new chairman and then from each country also a new commissioner – who must then be scrutinized and approved by the parliament.
Increased discontent
However, it is unlikely to go that way. For a vote of no confidence, a majority of at least two-thirds is required and that more than half of all members actually vote. The far-right therefore needs to get both left-wing members and large parts of the center to get their will through.
At the same time, the vote comes at a time when discontent in the EU Parliament has increased significantly among the Green party, social democrats, and The Liberals against von der Leyen and her Christian Democratic conservative party friends in the EPP party group.
Not least, the anger is great over the EPP's group leader and party chairman Manfred Weber, whom they accuse of making a deal with the far-right about reduced ambitions in the climate area.
Warning from S
Several center and left-wing members are expected to mark against von der Leyen by laying down their votes in the confidence vote, rather than openly supporting her.
The message is clear: if the cooperation does not improve, the next no confidence vote may come from the center side instead.
– If you betray your words again, it will be the social democrats who lead the resistance, warned group leader Iratxe García Pérez in a debate on Monday.
Wiktor Nummelin/TT
Facts: Ursula von der Leyen
TT
Ursula von der Leyen was born in 1958 in Brussels, where her father Ernst Albrecht, later a long-time regional government leader in the German state of Lower Saxony, worked for the EU Commission.
She has previously been, among other things, Minister for Family, Labor Market, and Defense in German governments under Angela Merkel and was surprisingly promoted by EU countries' heads of state and government as the new chairman of the EU Commission after the EU election in 2019.
She was approved in July 2019 by the EU Parliament with 383 votes against 327 and also received extended trust after the EU election in 2024 with 401 votes against 284.
