While Pedro Sanchez And Alberto Nuñez Feijóo They don’t even speak despite the disaster of the DANA of Valencia, the leader of the European socialists, the Spaniards Iratxe Garciaand the leader of the EPP, the German Manfred Weberconcluded an agreement this Wednesday to invest en bloc in the new Commission of Ursula von der Leyen. A pact with which the grand coalition of European forces (popular, socialist and liberal) that support the EU government has been reconfigured, which for a week has been on the verge of exploding due to the role of Therese Ribera at DANA in Valencia.
In fact, European socialists had already considered this agreement (forged in July to support Von der Leyen’s second term) broken after the difficult exam to which Pedro Sánchez’s number 3 was submitted to the European Parliament a week ago. EPP MPs accused Ribera of inaction within DANA in Valencia and urged her to commit to resign if she was prosecuted over her management. Popular Europeans followed line that Alberto Núñez Feijóo had agreed with Weber himself and forced the postponement of the evaluation of Ribera and six other commissioners.
The PSOE counterattacks by threatening to demolish the school of commissioners if the third vice-president did not pass her exam. The socialists and liberals also did not want to confirm the commissioners sent by Giorgia Meloni and Viktor Orbán because they came from the radical right. The European Union found itself facing the abyss of an unprecedented crisis at the very moment when Donald Trump was preparing to make a 180-degree turn in American policy and when Vladimir Putin was once again threatening to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
At the last minute, the central forces of the European Parliament stopped at the edge of the precipice. When all seemed lost, the white smoke arrived by surprise after only 48 hours of three-way dialogue: Manfred Weber, Iratxe García and the leader of the European liberals, Valerie Hayerthe envoy of the French president, Emmanuel Macron. “For the EPP, the most important thing is that the European Commission takes office and starts working on December 1. Europe needs stability“, argues the leader of the European People’s Party.
“This agreement unblocks a situation which endangered the stability of the EU. We achieved what seemed impossible a few days ago. The three political forces signed a written commitment to cooperate together over the next five years, working responsibly to face present and future challenges and advance the European agenda in a constructive manner,” highlighted Iratxe García.
The new grand coalition agreement consists of two pillars. On the one hand, the three groups drafted a declaration in which they pledged to “cooperate” throughout the legislature with a “constructive approach”, based on Von der Leyen’s government program. “We recognize the challenges posed by the geopolitical situation, Europe’s competitiveness deficit, security problems, migration and the climate crisis, as well as socio-economic inequalities”, we can read in the text.
On the other hand, popular, socialists and liberals lifted the cross vetoes. The EPP voted in favor of Teresa Ribera’s evaluation as Senior Vice-President of Competition and Green Transition. He did this after his appearance before the Spanish Parliament, as requested by it. In exchange for the yes to Ribera, the socialists and the greens supported the two radical right commissioners: the Hungarian Olivier Varhelyi and Italian Raffaele Fitto.
The first, to whom Von der Leyen entrusted the Health portfolio, in which the EU has practically no power, is also stripped of his powers in matters of pandemic and sexual health. After all, Orbán is the leader of the group Patriots for Europe (within which the National Group of Marine Le Pen is also active), to which the European Parliament applies a cordon santé for its radicalism.
On the other hand, Fitto (attached to the European Conservatives and Reformists group) retains his powers as executive vice-president of Cohesion intact. “The Italian government, under the leadership of Giorgia Meloniwants to contribute to solve problems based on our values at European level and this is a good sign,” Weber explained.
European conservatives and reformists also consistently voted in favor of Von der Leyen’s entire team, including socialists and liberals, to reach the two-thirds majority needed to approve them in the first instance. “We have made it clear what our red lines are with regard to extremists. We only work with those who are pro-European, pro-Ukraine and pro-rule of law,” says Weber.
Last obstacle
Ribera’s approval was met with a last-minute hurdle that delayed the entire process by four hoursuntil 11 p.m. The EPP – supported by its right-wing groups – tried until the end to include in the Spanish company’s evaluation letter the demand that she resign if she is “convicted” for her management at DANA, as requested by the Spanish delegation led by Dolors Montserrat.
The socialists, supported by the Greens and the radical left, categorically refused to include conditions in the letter. And they in turn blocked the confirmation of Fitto and the vice-president of the EPP, the Finn Henna Virkkunen. The compromise solution found to break the deadlock consists of including the EPP’s request in a attached declaration without any legal value. The Patriots of Europe and the Europe of Sovereign Nations voted against Ribera.
The agreement on the nominations left out of the picture the Spanish PP, which was seeking to overthrow Ribera and is considering a “no” to Von der Leyen’s college in the November 27 vote in Strasbourg. “Our Spanish friends made a great contribution to the EPP family. They won a lot of seats and also reduced Vox’s seats in the European Parliament: they defeated the populists. I therefore deeply respect the fact that Alberto Núñez Feijoo fulfilled. “We are in close contact to find a common solution,” said the EPP leader.
“Overall, I have learned a lot about Spanish politics in the last few weeks, it has been very informative. What I would say is that maybe it is not a good idea to bring back the polarization of Madrid to Brussels,” said the leader. of the Greens, Bas Eickhout.
Turn right
With this shift to the right due to the growing weight of Meloni’s group, the Greens, who voted in July in favor of Von der Leyen’s inauguration, will most likely break away from the grand coalition. Socialists and liberals insist that the agreement binds the EPP to the grand coalition, to the detriment of possible alliances with radical right forces in the European Parliament. However, popular Europeans argue that the deal only requires them to resort to the grand coalition as a first option, but They reserve the right to explore other alliances if negotiations with the socialists and liberals fail..
Since the start of the legislature, the EPP has already won several votes with the radical right, within the grand coalition. A configuration known in Brussels as the “Venezuelan majority”, because it first occurred during the vote that recognized Edmundo González Urrutia as president-elect of the Latin American country. With this pact, the populars leave open the possibility of continuing to play on both sides.
