2023-10-01 16:03:00
For the commissioner-designate, this grand oral will be anything but a walk in the park. He will have to convince that he is the right man for the job, something Wopke Hoekstra’s detractors doubt, given the profile of the former Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs.
A candidate who reassures conservatives
If the question arises today, it is because the number 2 of the Commission and big man of the Green Deal (or Green deal), Frans Timmermans decided, on August 22, to leave his functions to return to the political arena in the Netherlands and draw a red-green list for the early elections on November 22.
Frans Timmermans leaves the European Commission to try to become Prime Minister of the Netherlands
To replace him in Brussels, the resigning liberal Prime Minister Mark Rutte proposed the name of Wopke Hoekstra to President von der Leyen, preferred to the former Minister of Finance, Sigrid Kaag (of the liberal-progressive party D66). The political color of Wopke Hoekstra, former leader of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), is not unrelated to his appointment. The Hague has done Mrs von der Leyen a favor.
In recent months, the conservative group of the European Political Party (EPP) in the European Parliament has been fighting to reduce the ambitions, or even torpedo, of the legislative proposals of the Green deal – recently, the law on the restoration of nature, soon, the legislation on pesticides. Ursula von der Leyen cannot afford to alienate her political family, the most important in the chamber, at a time when she is entering the home stretch of her mandate and is considering running for a second one. The attribution to Wopke Hoekstra of powers formerly devolved to Frans Timmermans, the conservatives’ bête noire, is therefore likely to appease the latter. “To bring the green transition to the EPP, you need an EPP,” observes a European source.
European conservatives attack nature restoration law
Anti-Hoekstra campaign by climate activists
Several associations and NGOs, however, are alarmed by this designation and are campaigning once morest the confirmation of Mr. Hoekstra. Until now, he has not in fact distinguished himself by his pro-environmental positions, quite the contrary. Before entering politics, in 2017, Mr. Hoekstra (who celebrated his 48th birthday on September 30) worked for the oil giant Shell – for the record, we recall that the Climate Commissioner of the Juncker Commission, the Spanish conservative Miguel Aria Cañete, was also linked to the oil sector. The Dutchman’s opponents point out that as finance minister, he slowed down the end of the exploitation of gas fields in Groningen. And that, later, the CDA party, which he led, blocked the government’s plan to reduce nitrogen emissions.
Another obstacle will stand in front of Woke Hoekstra: his unpopularity with deputies from the countries of the South. They have not forgotten that in March 2020, when Italy and Spain were paying a heavy human and economic price for the Covid-19 pandemic, the big Dutch financier had suggested that the Commission investigate the reasons why these countries did not have the budgetary reserves to deal with this crisis – comments that Portuguese Prime Minister Costa described as “repugnant”.
Why the Netherlands has maintained a hard line in negotiations for the European response to the crisis caused by Covid-19.
Who will make up the necessary two-thirds majority?
The Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament (S&D) warned Mr Hoekstra at the end of August that he should expect “a tough hearing”. To the point of bringing down the candidate? The threat is mitigated by the fact that, on October 3, it is the Vice-President (S&D) of the Commission, Maros Sefcovic, designated the new Mr. Green Deal, who will be heard. The EPP and the S&D are holding each other by the goatee.
To be confirmed, Mr. Hoekstra must obtain a two-thirds majority of the Envi commission. He should obtain the votes of the “von der Leyen majority”: the EPP, the liberals of Renew and the S&D. Who from the Greens, or the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) will make up the difference? Mr Hoekstra’s answers to MPs’ questions will reveal whose votes he is seeking.
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