{"id":379182,"date":"2024-07-18T14:38:54","date_gmt":"2024-07-18T12:38:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2024\/07\/18\/von-der-leyen-presidente-commissione-bis\/"},"modified":"2024-07-25T15:37:21","modified_gmt":"2024-07-25T13:37:21","slug":"epp-sd-liberals-and-greens-confirm-ursula-von-der-leyen-president-of-the-eu-commission-for-another-five-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/2024\/07\/18\/epp-sd-liberals-and-greens-confirm-ursula-von-der-leyen-president-of-the-eu-commission-for-another-five-years\/","title":{"rendered":"EPP, S&D, Liberals, and Greens confirm Ursula von der Leyen President of the EU Commission for another five years"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the correspondent in Strasbourg<\/em> – Ursula von der Leyen<\/strong> does not fail the European Parliament vote test. She will be the President of the European Commission for another five years<\/strong>, equaling the record of the French socialist Jacques Delors<\/strong> (1985-1995) and the popular Jos\u00e9 Barroso<\/strong> (2004-2014) in leading the Union’s executive for two consecutive terms. After the European Council appointment <\/a>last June 27 to succeed herself, the outgoing President of the European Commission found confirmation at today’s (July 18) decisive vote<\/a> at the plenary session of the Strasbourg Chamber, which with 401 votes in favour (284 against, 15 abstentions) gave the green light for von der Leyen’s continued stay at the Berlaymont<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"Ursula<\/a>
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, at the plenary session of the European Parliament (July 18, 2024)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After von der Leyen’s keynote address outlined in nearly an hour-long speech this morning before the 720 MEPs, in the corridors of the Strasbourg headquarters of the EU Parliament a certain optimism<\/strong> had already begun to emerge about the chances of confirmation of the outgoing European Commission number one, a candidate from the political family of the Populars, to carry on her leadership that began in 2019. Particularly given the voting statements <\/a>– expressed before the polls opened at 1 p.m. – not only of the centrist groups that have supported the majority over the past five years<\/strong> (European People’s Party, Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, Renew Europe), but also of the Greens\/Ale<\/strong> group, which with its 53 members secured the EU Parliament’s support for von der Leyen.<\/p>\n

\"Ursula<\/a>
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, at the plenary session of the European Parliament (July 18, 2024)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With no openings to the right wing of the European Conservatives and Reformists, which reassured Social Democrats and Liberals, the only unknown that held with bated breath until the last second revolved around a possible haemorrhage of votes from the rightmost wing of its own populars. But the tally of those against (284) and abstaining (15)\u2014excluding the 84 from Patriots for Europe, the 46 from the Left, the 25 from Europe of Sovereign Nations, and the 33 non-attached<\/strong> (mostly not in favour), as well as an undefined number of the 78 members of the conservative right (in no particular order)\u2014shows that the number of turncoats stopped at 53 MEPs from the centrist-Green majority. The confirmation would have come with 454 votes if all four groups had voted compactly<\/strong>. Still, the minimum threshold set today at 360 (out of 719 installed, only the Catalan independentist Antoni Com\u00edn<\/strong> is missing from the roll call) was nevertheless well exceeded, with only 53 defections and, data in hand, in the irrelevance of the dissenting vote (which came at the last) of Premier Giorgia Meloni’s party<\/strong> for von der Leyen’s confirmation as President of the European Commission.<\/p>\n