Sánchez’s refusal to replace Ribera after Feijóo decision puts Von der Leyen’s majority on the precipice

For the socialists, it is precisely the rejection of Ribera by the EPP which blows up the entire grand coalition agreement.. “Weber broke the political agreement of pro-European democratic forces in the European Parliament”, placing the EU in its most serious political crisis in decades. In the note, they call him “irresponsible” and being ready to “align with far-right populists”.

Socialists legitimately fear that the European PP plays a double game throughout the legislature: form a coalition with them and with the liberals if necessary, and impose other policies that suit the right (ECR, Patriotas and even Soberanistas) on issues that disavow them. And they elevated this very personal matter of Ribera to this category to avoid this risk.

The popular, for their part, affirm that the left vetoed two candidates for ideological reasons, the Hungarian Oliver Varhelyi and Italian Raffaele Fittoto then use them as bargaining chips to force Ribera’s acceptance. And that the rejection of the Spanish candidate does not enter into this debate, because it is based on his refusal to assume his responsibilities and the risk of being indicted for his “mismanagement” of DANA, not in his home government.

The socialist reaction

The entire Commission is hanging by a thread, because Sánchez is the de facto leader of the S&D (with Iratxe García as intermediary) and cannot or will not allow defeat to resign from Ribera. And Feijóo is ready to go all the way, even if it means “war”in the words of one of his closest collaborators.

The extent to which Weber will be prepared to accompany him, or the socialist pressure he will be able to resist, will determine the departure of an alley that gets darker today with each passing hour.

Feijóo demanded this Wednesday that Sánchez change his candidate for another “prestigious” person, suggesting the name of Luis PlanasMinister of Agriculture and pro-European expert.

Weber, for his part, maintained the firmness of his Spanish colleague. And he was only willing to sit down to “re-evaluate” the Spanish woman if she committed to resign as soon as a judge touches him by DANA and “as long as give to the Congress of Spain” Wednesday 20 “the explanations that it did not give Tuesday in the European Parliament”, Tuesday 12th.

And if not? GOOD “It will be a war without prisoners, not even with Ursula von der Leyen”warned a seasoned socialist MEP a few hours before the hearing.

At that time, we already knew what the PPE was going to do. And the socialists have already moved from their first reaction, accusing Feijóo of “bringing his extremism from Spain to Europe”, to the second, blocking the five other candidates for vice-president of the Commission… even if it means harming a another socialist, the Romanian Roxana Mînzatu.

And even worse, to the new High Representative, the former Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallascontradicting one of his own arguments: that “the stability of European institutions is threatened in the midst of a difficult geopolitical climate”, with Vladimir Putin emboldened and Donald Trumpabout to regain power.

Weber and Feijóo ahead of Von der Leyen

Sunday evening, Feijóo video titled Weber and explained the situation personally. The German politician radically changed his position: he went from trying to impose on the Spaniards they will swallow with the “great pact” so as not to endanger European unity, take the lead in the rebellion against the candidate nominated by Sánchez.

Feijóo made him understand that the Spanish PP would not be the only one to maintain its vote against the confirmation of the Spanish vice-president as vice-president of the community government. But he appealed to “moral” problems and the protection of the Commission itself against someone who “in addition to not being a worthy representative of Spain in the Commission has direct, and perhaps legal, responsibilities in the DANA disaster“, causing more than 220 deaths.

Weber, after hearing the arguments, had no shortage of incentives to endorse such a risky bet. The Bavarian has important accounts with Sánchez, which moved from political to personal a year ago: that day when the Spanish president confronted him during the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, comparing it to the Nazi regime.

“That’s to say, bring Spanish polarization into the EU“, summarizes another source from the Spanish PP in Unión.

“But the fact is that as the hours go by, Weber will find it harder to turn backand explain to his own deputies that in the end, Ribera must be approved”, explains a senior EPP official in the German leader’s closest entourage.

The reasons? The first Neither Weber nor Feijóo are passionate about Von der Leyenand the clothes don’t hurt to put them in this position. A Spanish PP source explained it this way: “The European leader had to accept it, even if he didn’t like it. excessive tendency to please Sánchez; and the Spanish boss owes him nothing, quite the contrary.

That is, they expect the president to defend her position by showing her power and influence over Sánchez, demanding Ribera’s change. Because, even if the Spanish president threatens to destroy everything, These are the socialists “those who have neither a majority to approve anything, nor a minority to block”.

And the second, that the EPP is the majority party, to the point that all its heads of government have already been contacted to support this rebellion. And that many of its non-Spanish MEPs now seem even more convinced than those of the PP that Ribera is a bad option. I didn’t answer to the most demanding questions, neither on DANA, nor on competition, nor on prices…

And although Dolors Montserrat and the rest of the first Spanish swords initially struggled to convince their colleagues to question them during Tuesday’s examination about their political responsibilities regarding AEMET and the Hydrographic Confederation of Júcar, the development of the audience He convinced them.

During the first two hours of the hearing, Ribera was solidand he knew how to wrap his evasions on key issues with pro-European bon mots and attacks against “the dogmatic disinformation of the far right”. But the fact that he didn’t answer Montserrat’s key question…“Do you agree to resign if you are legally involved in the DANA disaster?-, ignited the majority of the deputies present.

“We will not accept it”

Above all, to the three who, if Ribera fulfills the two conditions imposed by Weber, will decide what to do with her: force her to a second hearing (humiliating)submit it to a plenary vote (which, unless otherwise ordered, would reject it) or, quite simply, weaken it by submitting it to a new written exam with explicit questions about how their policies influenced the 29-O disaster.

These are the three Germans, EPP coordinators in the three committees examining Ribera: Markus Ferber (Economy), Peter Liese (Environment) and Christian Ehler (Industry). All three have publicly pledged to vote against him…for now.

And this statement from the head of the Swedish EPP delegation this Wednesday is enough as an example: “We are witnessing the enormous hypocrisy of European social democrats. They do not want to approve the Hungarian and Italian commissioners because they do not like their governments, and they ask our group to solve the problem, together with the groups to our right. And then the next thing is to criticize us for voting with them,” he began Tomas Tobe.

The feeling among popular Europeans consulted is that “the wall” that Sánchez announced during his inauguration in Spain has been exported to Brussels.

And Tobé concludes: “Now they want that we endorse the Spanish socialist for one of the most important positions in the EUwho bears political responsibility for the great natural disaster in Valencia, who has gone into hiding and does not want to take any political responsibility in Spain. we will not accept it“.