Ursula von der Leyen received support from the Social Democrats’ group in the EU Parliament despite the lack of an answer on the maximum ceiling for the number of subcontractors. “An overall assessment, she has been clear in other parts of our requirements,” says a disappointed Johan Danielsson.
During the afternoon, the Christian Democrat Ursula von der Leyen was re-elected president of the European Commission. Before the vote, the Swedish Social Democrats demanded, among other things, that long entrepreneurial chains in workplaces should be banned. They expected an answer before the vote – but there was none. Despite that, S chose to say yes to Ursula von der Leyen.
You did not receive a response to the demand for a maximum ceiling for subcontractors, yet you approved Ursula von der Leyen as the presidency of the European Commission. Why?
It is about the overall assessment we made as a party and as a party political group. She has been clear in other parts of our demands, such as standing up to those who are dismantling democracy, who violate basic rights, including trade unions, and that we should continue the green transformation of industry, so that the new green jobs end up in Europe and Sweden. It was also extremely important that we give the support needed to Ukraine to win the war against Russia.
– But I’m not going to hide under the chair that I’m disappointed with the low degree of concretization linked to the labor market policy. It was just too bad.
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The social democratic group makes tough demands on von der Leyen in order to approve her as president of the European Commission: Put an end to the subcontractor chains.
So what happens now with your requirements?
– Ursula does not say no to our demand. When I put the demand directly to her during our group meeting, she pointed to an opening.
– Now Ursula’s political priorities must be made concrete. There, the new labor market commissioner has the opportunity to be more concrete than Ursula was today. And we will demand that when he or she comes to parliament in September. The issue is by no means dead.
What do you have to resist next time?
– Partly, the next step is to approve the labor market commissioner, which is not a given. It must, just like all other commissioners, come up with a longer and more detailed work program than what Ursula has presented today.
– She was also very clear that the commission must respect the parliament. So we ourselves must be able to initiate legislation and that the commission must then respect it. So our group will prioritize doing this right away when we get started in the fall. And then also specifically with a focus on the issue of business chains.
So, disappointed, but you guys keep working?
– That’s how you can summarize the feeling.
This is how the Swedish parties voted:
The vote was secret, but the Swedish members MP, S, C, L, KD and M said they voted for Ursula von der Leyen, while V and SD declared that they did not support her.
Janna Ayres
