Italy, majority breaks down on von der Leyen: FI’s ‘no’ to censorship, Lega’s ‘yes’. FdI does not vote

Brussels – Everything as planned. Or almost. Because the vote on the motion of no confidence in the European Commission and its president, Ursula von der Leyen, redraws balances and logics at the last moment. This is well known among Italians in the European Parliament, who hold even more varied positions than those announced. What emerges first of all is the complete dissimilarity of the government coalition: Forza Italia votes against the censure and confirms its confidence in the EU executive, the Lega delegation votes ‘yes’ to the no-confidence vote compactly, while the members of Fratelli d’Italia do not participate in the vote.

The change in Giorgia Meloni’s party’s intention stands out. The MEPs of the Prime Minister’s party had anticipated speaking against the motion of censure, but they did not, as they deserted the vote.

In the end, the fact that emerges, for von der Leyen, is that Forza Italia emerges from the poll as the only reliable political referent. “We are the pro-European party par excellence and today we have proved it,” commented Fulvio Martuscello, Forza Italia’s group leader in the EU Parliament. “Today’s vote,” he emphasised, “was not about the von der Leyen Commission, but about belonging to Europe. And as always, Forza Italia is there”.

The original “Ursula majority” (popular-socialist-liberals-greens), which had already been questioned after one year of the legislature and was fraying even more on confidence day, must also begin to reckon with the Democratic Party delegation. Of the 21 PD MEPs, seven avoided the vote. One-third of the members effectively dumped von der Leyen. Missing from the roll-call are Brando Benifei, Giorgio Gori, Elisabetta Gualmini, Matteo Ricci, Cecilia Strada, Marco Tarquinio, and Alessandro Zan.

In contrast, the 5 Star Movement is voting against the Commission, expressing its opinion not so much on the merits of the issue that is the subject of the motion of censure—the Pfizergate scandal—as on the whole operation. “The list of disasters of this European Commission is very long,” reads the note circulated by the 5-Star. “Over the past year it has espoused rearmament instead of a prospect of peace in Ukraine, failed to take decisive action to prevent genocide in Gaza, abandoned industry to its fate, reneged on environmental commitments, cut cohesion funds intended for southern regions, and is now preparing to penalise our businesses by accepting painful tariffs from Trump without reacting,” lists a note from the delegation.

The Italians in Green Europe within the Green group (Cristina Guarda, Ignazio Marino, Leoluca Orlando, Benedetta Scuderi) did not participate in the vote, as did the two representatives of Sinistra Italiana  (Mimmo Lucano and Ilaria Salis).