Government recognizes Ribera’s nomination is under threat as ‘chaos’ breaks out in EU

This is indicated by government sources, who admit to being concerned about how the appointment of the new college of commissioners, including Ribera, will be resolved once the PP has managed to convince the entire European People’s Party to leave its approval to the candidates. new vice-presidents of the Commission, At least until next week.

In this sense, the sources consulted emphasize that once the “chaos” breaks out, it is difficult to recompose the previous agreement concluded between the three main political families of the European Union, the conservatives, the socialists and democrats and the liberals. , who had agreed on a series of names to invent the new commission under the presidency of Ursula Von der Leyen.

In the Executive there is fear that this pact will now explode, with the PP pointing the finger at Ribera for his actions in the DANA which devastated a good part of the province of Valencia and left him 216 victims counted for now.

Ribera was examined this week before the European Parliament and those of Feijóo managed to convince the EPP to postpone his verdict until next week, when he will appear at the Congress of Deputies to give explanations for the actions of his department in the storm .

The entire commission is in danger

However, the pending decision not only affects Ribera, which would assume the Clean Transition and Competition portfolios, but also the six vice-presidents of the Commissionsince there will only be one vote that will give the green light or overturn them all. The main political groups in the European Parliament accepted this vote as a bloc so that none of the nominated candidates would be approved until the others were approved.

The government therefore admits that the appointment of the entire new Commission is in danger and They categorically reject the option that Núñez Feijóo put on the table, which involves the withdrawal of Ribera’s candidacy and the election of another member of the Executive, preferably the head of Agriculture, Luis Planas.

This option is excluded by the Executive because it considers that it would be “a drop in the bucket” in response to the requests of Feijóo, who has few options to move forward because would upset the balance which responds to more factors than nationality. Her election is part of a global pact and would not simply consist of replacing her with another Spanish candidate.

It depends how far Weber wants to go.

According to government sources consulted, one of the keys is knowing how far the leader of the European People’s Party, the German, is willing to lead this fight. Manfred Weberwho has an internal conflict with Von der Leyen and who also risks retaining the leadership of his party.

In this sense, they emphasize that Weber has before him a congress of the EPP, during which he aspires to re-election as party presidentfor which he needs the support of the Spanish “popular”. They thus explain why they adhered to Feijóo’s theses and joined the attack against Ribera.

They also consider that this strategy generates dissatisfaction of certain conservative MPs Well, the alternative to the current pact between the EPP, the Socialists and Democrats and the Liberals involves an agreement between the conservatives and the rest of the far-right parties.