Von der Leyen confirms her majority, but keeps doors open to the ECR

Brussels – Work with everyone and listen to everyone: everyone who has cared about Europe and everyone who will want to. Ursula von der Leyen wants full, genuine support for her second term. The outgoing and incoming president of the European Commission today in her speech in front of the Plenary in Strasbourg is seeking to unite the House of the European Parliament even more. Confidence for the College of Commissioners in Strasbourg seems to be assured thanks to a political pact between the Socialists-Popular-Liberals that guarantees the green light needed to get the new European legislature started. Von der Leyen starts there and extends from there. “We will be guided by the Political Guidelines this House voted on,” she says in her speech before the vote. It means holding on to the EPP-S&D-Re pact. And not only that.

“As I said before the vote in July, we will work with all democratic pro-European forces in this House,” von der Leyen continued. It means openness and willingness towards the Greens and to that part of the conservatives (ECR) that will want and be able to join. In asking for confidence in her new team, the president of the European Commission does not explicitly close the door to the ECR.

Von der Leyen shows her nature as a politician, changing and ambiguous. “overcoming divisions and forging compromises is the hallmark of any vivid democracy,” she said. “And my message today is that we want to work with you in that spirit,” she added. With ‘you’ — MEPs — which also includes ECR delegations, those who will be willing to compromise.

There are practical and political reasons to seek firm and expanded alliances: geopolitical instability, Donald Trump’s return to the United States, and China’s economic advance. “Now is the time to come together,” von der Leyen emphasized. “This unity will be all the more important in today’s contested world. A world in which every weakness is weaponized, every division pounced upon and every dependency exploited.” They are helpful words for MEPs from the East, the former satellite countries of the USSR. Von der Leyen’s appeal to MEPs of all political groups is a call for responsibility: “Our freedom and sovereignty depend more than ever on our economic strength. Our security depends on our ability to compete, innovate and produce.” 

To transform this cooperation with pro-European democratic forces, the College of Commissioners that von der Leyen is asking for confidence intends to work to get everyone together. “We must and will stay the course on the goals of the European Green Deal” is the promise tailored to Socialists and even more Greens. However, in this, “We need to play to our traditional strengths – our industries and SMEs.” A correction tailored towards the EPP and more: because von der Leyen anticipates, “We will put forward the Clean Industrial Deal within the first 100 days of the mandate. This will involve the entire College” — all its members and the political forces they represent.