The European People’s Party confirms that “today the candidacy of Therese Ribera as executive vice-president and competition commissioner” in Brussels. This is what this newspaper learned, according to European Parliament sources consulted by this newspaper.
With this decision, agreed between Alberto Nuñez Feijóo and the leader of the popular Europeans, the German Manfred Weberthe formation of the community executive has been paralyzed, at least “for several weeks” and above all, the great historic pact of the centrist parties of the European Union is in jeopardy.
The socialists responded by announcing the veto to the European PP Raffaelle FittoItaly’s candidate Giorgia Meloni to the economic vice-president. Thus, at present, none of the last six candidates for the college of commissioners will pass their exam this Tuesday.
Sources from the European PP assure EL ESPAÑOL that they are blocking Ribera, while “the response of the socialists is block the entire community government.
From the Spanish PP, they insist that “it is Pedro Sánchez who is blocking everything because of his determination to keep Ribera, which the majority in the European Parliament does not want, as we have seen.”
This is the first time that the six candidates for the vice-president of the Commission have been left behind until the last day. The call Super Tuesday It was born from a strategic move by the Spanish PP aimed at forcing Ribera to be the last to pass the exam.
Vice presidents are usually the candidates with the greatest political clout, as is the case. And in the EU, the tradition was to release the exam as early as possible to avoid scares like the one just confirmed.
The third vice-president of the Spanish government has never been considered “an adequate representative” by the PP within the European Executive. Already at the time, the people of Feijóo expressed their disagreement and did not support his appointment, decided by Pedro Sanchez.
In fact, the Spanish PP pushed the machine to the extreme to weaken the portfolio assigned to it as much as possible. Ursula von der Leyenelected president of the European Commission, who now risks having to rethink the entire college of commissioners.
But that’s just a possibility, for now. The sources consulted only assure that “not today” Ribera will be confirmed as first vice-president of the Commission.
Of course, the popular Spaniards are pressuring their European colleagues to complete their long-conceived “demolition operation”. Since the electoral campaign for the European elections of 9-J, Génova and its delegation in Brussels, led by Dolors Montserratconspired to overturn the candidacy of the Spanish socialist.
Even though now it means “press the nuclear button” which explodes the entire pact between the popular, the socialists, the liberals… and the ECR of the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni.
Because it’s another one. Officially, the Spanish-led Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) Iratxe Garcia In the European Parliament, they do not agree at all with the “extreme right”, as they describe the government (and the party) of the head of the Italian government.
But in reality, and through the EPP, we can say that “the great European alliance has already developed”, in the words of a center-right MEP. And that is why, for the moment, there have been no setbacks in the examinations that the European Parliament is carrying out of the 27 candidates for a portfolio at the Commission.
In any case, even if Germany Manfred Weber (leader of the EPP) has his “unfinished business” with Von der Leyen, he does not seem convinced to go through with it.
And Feijóo’s PP – his main ally in maintaining the “status quo” of popular Europeans – could be enough to force a second review for Ribera “when is already burnedafter his appearance in Congress for hiding his responsibilities in the DANA disaster.
tactical movement
It would be a tactical move in which everyone would win: on the one hand, the European PP would not risk the “big market”. This agreement at the July Council was very beneficial for the People’s Party (the only major party on the rise in the EU).
And that earned him not only Von der Leyen’s re-election as president, but also a an almost universal power in the institutions: with the presidency of the European Parliament (Roberta Metsola) and a majority in the College of Commissioners (14 of the 27 heads of state or government).
So, on the other hand, the Spanish PP would not pick up a piece of big game, but leave it seriously injured. “How Sánchez made usas soon as he arrived at the head of the PSOE in 2014, ordering his people to break the agreement, to weaken Commissioner Cañete”, recalls a long-time popular deputy.
Now the battle for responsibilities within DANA is taking place live. And if the focus is on the people he ate with Carlos Mazon the 29-O – accused of negligence because “DANA was warned five days before” – another point no less pointed towards the officials of AEMET and the Hydrographic Confederation of Júcar.
In this sense, a popular spokesperson insists to this newspaper that “we will have to see if Von der Leyen wants to import a spanish problem with a policy implicated in the deaths of around 300 people due to its negligence.
Concerning Ribera, the question is “what was he doing the day before in Paris and in Brussels on the day of the arrests”. Although this last question has already been answered: he emptied his official diary vice-president of Spain to work on the votes that could lead her to the position of vice-president of Europe.
“The consequences”
The Spanish PP assured from Brussels, from Monday evening, to “convince” Weber that Ribera should be overthrown. Moreover, a few hours earlier, still in the morning, sources from the popular leadership of Madrid stated without embarrassment that the steering committee of the Feijóo “is prepared to assume the consequences”.
That is to say, bring about the complete downfall of the Commission. Because this would be the consequence, the response of the socialists, as revealed by a very reliable S&D source. Consider the broken historic European centrist pact and confirm that the EPP wants “an alternative majority with the far right”.
With only a few hours left before the start of the examination in the European Parliament, the popular Spaniards were beginning to declare victory… or at least, a first “goal for the team”.
If only the current Minister of Ecological Transition were forced to take a new exam, its future in Brussels will be weakened.
Or to finish fall on its own in a few weeks -for this reason, the PP has already suggested that other names would pose “less problems”, such as Luis PlanasMinister of Agriculture and EU expert – or be a “lame police officer” from the start.
Everything will depend on how he escapes criticism of his management of the DANA crisis and, above all, on the reasons he gives to justify his decision to paralyze the “adaptation and drainage of the Poyo ravine” works in 2021. Some performances that she herself had authorized in 2011when she was Secretary of State for Climate Change.
And if it doesn’t go well, the Spanish PP believes it can recover the part without breaking everything.
Because the European PP had already given up on Ribera, whom it repeatedly described as “sectarian, dogmatic and harmful both for the primary sector and for the balance between the environment and economic progress.
But if finally this Tuesday the pact was suddenly broken, we should expect a virulent reaction from European socialists.
Because, even if Von der Leyen had at a reduced price his position placing him three EPP commissioners under his vice-presidencyRibera comes from the PSOE, which is the leader of the S&D (even more so today, with the weakening of Germany’s SPD). Olaf Scholz).
And Sánchez can raise the stakes, with the arguments already presented by MEP García, against “the ultra tour” of the president-elect “on immigration issues”supporting the expulsions to third countries imagined by Meloni.
Furthermore, the Spanish president is not only the leader of the Socialist International (an organization that has little weight so far, but with a lot of agenda, which he knows how to press). He is also a great survivor, a talented strategist and a politician who “take no prisoners”according to your own environment. And let’s not forget that He has unpaid accounts at Weber.
