President Ursula von der Leyen of the European Commission has requested the European Parliament's approval for an extension of her term of office in an impassioned plea. The 65-year-old German politician needs an absolute majority of the 720 MEPs in Strasbourg on Thursday: 361 votes.
For this, Van der Leyen can in any case count on support from three pro-European political groups that won a majority of seats last month - just like in 2019 - her own center-right European People's Party (188 seats), the Social Democrats (136), and the Renew Liberals (77).
Due to the recent election win of the far-right Patriots, the conservative ECR (78 seats) is now the fourth party, and the Liberals and Greens have fallen to 77 and 53 seats respectively. Several individual members of the current three coalition factions have already said they will not support Von der Leyen. They include the French conservative Les Républicains (EPP), German, Irish and Romanian liberals, as well as French and Italian social democrats. The final vote on Thursday afternoon is secret.
Uncertain about her chances of re-election, Von der Leyen has tried to expand her majority by building a bridge to both the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) and the Greens. But working too much with ECR is a risk for her, because she would lose some of the social democrats (S&D) and liberals (Renew) who do not want to work with the right.
In order to gather support for her work programme, the Commission President therefore attended not only the group meetings of the three coalition parties EPP, S&D and Renew last week, but also the group meeting of the Greens. As a result, Von der Leyen has promised something to iedereen in recent weeks, but no one has been fully satisfied. This political ambivalence may also have jeopardized her re-election.
In any case, it will be exciting, just like five years ago. There will be 720 MEPs in Strasbourg for the next five-year term, so VdL needs 361 votes. The question is therefore whether among the 401 EU politicians of her current three-party coalition, there are forty who will not support her candidacy. And the question is whether she has managed to convince enough Conservatives and Greens.
According to duo faction leader Bas Eickhout, whether the Greens will vote for her reappointment will depend on the plans she announced in her speech. It will be examined whether 'the Commission will take tougher action against countries that undermine the rule of law and European values. So: no more European money to rule of law violators such as Orbán's Hungary and the rule of law should never be part of a political barter game.
In the field of peace and security, The Greens want the EU to remain fully supportive of Ukraine; is proactively committed to a two-state solution in the Middle East conflict and will cooperate more in the field of Defense. In addition, the Greens want guarantees for maintaining the Climate Agreements of the Green Deal, also in European Agriculture.