“Do you remember what the PSOE did with Cañete? “We will not do that.” With this phrase, the parliamentary spokesman of the PP, Miguel Tellado, responded this Tuesday at noon to the question about the PP’s position regarding the appointment of Teresa Ribera as vice-president of the European Commission. Tellado, Alberto Núñez Feijóo’s executive since he was leader of the Galician PP, opened the door to abstention or a favorable vote. In any case, do not vote against. A few minutes later, a message from the PP corrected him: “The PP will not support Ribera and we will do what the PSOE did with Cañete.”
Tellado harshly criticized the election of his European colleague from the PP, Ursula von der Leyen. The president of the European Commission, who has gained support for a second term that will begin this fall, has chosen Teresa Ribera as vice-president for the clean, fair and competitive transition. A key portfolio in the future organization chart of the EU. She will be, as the specialized media Politico indicates, the “number two” of the community government.
The PP leader considered the election of Von der Leyen as “bad” and did not reveal what the PP deputies will vote for when the Community Parliament will have to ratify or not the composition of the Commission. “Do you remember what the PSOE did with [Miguel Arias] Canete? We will not do that,” he replied to the express question of how he would vote. But MEPs do not vote for commissioners in plenary one by one, but rather for the entire composition of the Commission.
Where they can take a stand against a specific commissioner is within the respective parliamentary committees, where future community leaders undergo a review (“hearing”) that can overturn their nomination. In 2019, this happened for example with the one indicated by French President Emmanuel Macron.
But Tellado did not reveal the significance of the vote in any of the parliamentary processes to which the College of Commissioners is subject and limited himself to attacking Ribera in a press conference in Congress. “Despite her grandiloquent title, Ribera will have very limited sectarian zeal because she will be a commissioner without legislative powers,” he said. “She will only have legislative powers in matters of competition, which is a relief,” he added.
“The most sensitive issues to which he could aspire are not in his hands: agriculture, the environment, fisheries, food will be in the hands of the European PP. We are satisfied,” he noted, concluding: “A bad minister cannot be a good commissioner. It is a bad choice. We are not in favour of the export of ‘sanchism’.”
A minute later, the PP leadership made a correction. “We will do what the PSOE did with Cañete,” the statement said, referring to the PSOE’s 2014 vote against the PP candidate at the time, Miguel Arias Cañete. The socialists then abstained from voting in plenary.
