Ursula alarm. New majority desperately sought. A final meeting between Meloni and Von der Leyen on Tuesday. And on Thursday there will be a vote, at the European Parliament in Brussels, on the new mandate. By secret ballot. And the outcome is not a foregone conclusion. There will be suspense until the very end, vote following vote, for the reconfirmation of the German popular party which sees the numbers in favor loosening. A possible rejection would be a historic first. And, according to the Treaties, it would require EU leaders to propose a new name within a month, in the middle of summer. To avoid this scenario, which is still possible, the objective remains to secure the support of around 400 deputies from the EPP, S&D and Renew: enough to exceed 361, the necessary majority. However, there is no shortage of trouble at home: the French and Slovenian popular parties (11 in total) have already announced their discontent with the German. Tensions are high. And the choice – once more by secret ballot – of Von der Leyen’s 14 deputies will also offer a first test of the strength of the sanitary cordon that the pro-European arc aims to tighten around the far right of Viktor Orban’s Patriots – who are also grappling with the Vannacci case – and the newly formed Europe of sovereign nations led by AfD to exclude them from all institutional roles.
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The support needed to re-elect the president of the European Commission is mixed with the requests of the member states – France and Italy above all, then Spain and Poland – to obtain weighty commissioners. The cocktail is explosive. The fibrillations among the European right, with the Patriots growing at the expense of Ecr, do not allow the Melonian group to give in on any point. However, the diplomatic card is open and Von der Leyen hopes to have at least a sign of openness from Giorgia Meloni.
Before leaving Washington yesterday, the Prime Minister left the door ajar: “Following Tuesday’s meeting and based on what you say, we will talk with the other delegations and decide what to do.”
In the negotiations for European appointments, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said she had “the sole objective of bringing home the best possible result for Italy” and the different positions in the majority on a new mandate for Ursula von der Leyen at the helm of the European Commission “does not prevent forms of collaboration”. “We want to be given the right weight and the entire majority is working on this”, Meloni said while speaking to journalists in Washington at the end of the NATO summit. This, she explained, is her position as Prime Minister, where “as president of the European conservatives, I will meet Von der Leyen and then, based on what she has to say, we will talk to the other delegations and decide what to do”. Matteo Salvini has made it known that he has the same intention: respect for the negotiations in progress but no vote on Von der Leyen’s plate. The Italian right remains united for the moment also in Europe, with the sole exception of Forza Italia which – being part of the EPP – cannot distance itself from voting for the re-nominated president. And on the vote, already jeopardized by snipers, there is also a legal unknown: the verdict of the European Court of Justice – arriving on the eve of the count – on the appeals once morest the German and her executive for the lack of transparency in the contracts on anti-Covid vaccines. A ruling that might help move the abacus in one direction or the other.
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2024-07-13 19:08:40
