Von der Leyen under fire: two no-confidence motions ready from opposite sides of the House

Brussels – Two months after the vote on the no-confidence motion in the handling of the Pfizergate, in which Ursula von der Leyen narrowly survived, licking her wounds, the EU leader remains under fire from the extreme right and the radical left. Yesterday, the sovereignist Patriots group filed a new censure motion. This morning, as the saying goes, things come in threes, even The Left announced that it has collected the 72 signatures needed to put von der Leyen’s ouster to a vote. 

It remains an unlikely scenario, unless it taps into the discontent of the majority groups. Von der Leyen herself made it clear to the Strasbourg Chamber yesterday that she wanted to “work to strengthen the pro-European majority, for me the only one possible.” She needs to maintain the fragile coalition of Populars, Socialists, Liberals, and occasionally, the Conservatives and Greens, to stay in power.

The motions of Patriots and The Left

Yesterday morning, the Sovereignist group led by Marine Le Pen’s protege, Jordan Bardella, filed its motion of no-confidence with the legal services of the European Parliament. Compactly, all 85 Patriots for Europe MEPs (including eight of the League delegation) signed. At the heart of the no-confidence motion is the Commission’s trade policy, in particular the recent EU-US trade framework deal and the EU-Mercosur free trade agreement signed in December 2024, reads a note from the group. 

These are two mistakes that not even Manon Aubry and Martin Schirdewan, co-presidents of The Left, are willing to forgive the President of the European Commission for. On the contrary, “vassalage” to the US and “the worst agreement ever signed by the EU”, respectively, as Aubry defined them, top the list, followed by the EU’s “complicity in the genocide in Gaza” and “backwardness in social and ecological matters.” 

Joining the 46 MEPs from The Left group (which includes the Five Star Movement) were Irish socialist Aodhán Ó Ríordáin and eight members of the Greens group: the four Italians of the AVS delegation and four Spaniards. To reach the required 72 signatures, Aubry and Schirdewan fished among the non-attached, gaining the support of the Slovak Social Democrats of SMER and the unaffiliated German radical left (Die Partei and Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance – Reason and Justice). 

“I regret that the entire Left does not join the censure motion,” said the group’s co-president, pointing the finger at the lack of courage of the Greens and S&D. As was already the case with the motion initiated by Conservative MEP Georghe Piperea (ECR), other MEPs could nevertheless join the cause when it comes to the vote. Bardella assured yesterday that to dethrone von der Leyen, the Patriots will not hesitate to support The Left’s motion. On the other hand, Aubry ruled out support for Sovereignist censorship. “Ours and theirs are completely at odds,” she said. “We will not vote for it because the motion echoes migration and security obsessions and attacks the Green Deal.” 

To pass a motion of no-confidence, two-thirds of the votes cast in the plenary and a majority of the Members of Parliament must support it. For the first time, two different motions could be debated and put to a vote in the same plenary session, probably as early as October.