Ursula Von der Leyen re-elected as President of the European Commission by a wide margin

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Brussels.-The European Parliament has renewed its confidence in Ursula Von der Leyen and re-elected her as President of the European Commission on Thursday with 401 votes in favour.

Official candidate of the European People’s Party (EPP), the party that won the European elections, Von der Leyen received three weeks ago the endorsement of the Twenty-Seven to run for re-election and seek the support of the European Parliament, her most difficult test.

Five years ago she was elected by a margin of nine votes, but this time, the intense negotiations with the political groups have borne fruit: Von der Leyen received 401 votes in favour, out of the 707 cast. The majority needed was finally 360 votes, half plus one of the seats that make up the current hemicycle, in which Toni Comín (Junts) has not been able to take his place so far.

Von der Leyen has had the declared support of the EPP, the Socialists (S&D) and the Liberals (Renew), but the vote was secret and defections were expected in all these groups, hence Von der Leyen’s determination to build a larger majority.

Although during the campaign, under pressure from her political family, the German opened the door to making pacts with radical right-wing parties as long as they were “pro-Ukraine, pro-NATO and pro-rule of law”, she ultimately did not seek any concrete agreement with the only group of this ideological orientation that meets these conditions (the European Conservatives and Reformists, Giorgia Meloni’s political family) and instead worked on the support of the Greens.

Although the environmentalists did not support her in 2019, this time they were determined to be part of the so-called ‘Von der Leyen coalition’ to try to gain more weight in the new legislature, which begins with a record presence of far-right parties.

ECR has given its members a free vote and although “a majority of delegations” would vote against her, some deputies from the more moderate wing of ECR ​​have supported the German PP. The Italian delegation did not want to reveal how they voted before casting their ballots. Patriots for Europe and Europe of Sovereign Nations, both of the far right, have turned their backs on her, as has the radical left.

“I have listened carefully to the democratic forces in this Parliament and I am convinced that these guidelines reflect how much we have in common despite our differences, which are healthy in any democracy,” Ursula von der Leyen argued in her speech to the European Parliament on Thursday.

The creation of a commissioner for affordable housing, a demand from the socialists and environmentalists, another specific to the demographic challenge and another for relations with the Mediterranean responsible for combining agreements on investments and immigration, in addition to an unprecedented portfolio dedicated to defense as requested by Poland, in addition to a vice president in charge of administrative simplification are, among others, some of the novelties of the possible ‘von der Leyen II Commission’, which in its first hundred days of work would launch a new green industrial plan and design a fund for competitiveness with which to support economic decarbonization and innovation.Clarín.