Von der Leyen faces two no-confidence motions; European Parliament majority protects her

Strasbourg – Two motions, two votes, and two speeches against the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. Today (October 6), on the first day of the plenary assembly in Strasbourg, the two extreme wings of the Parliament – Patriots for Europe (PfE) and The Left – tabled two separate motions to bring down the Commission.

“Voting no-confidence is not voting against Europe, it is voting to save it,” said Jordan Bardella, chair of the Patriots group. According to Manon Aubry, group leader of The Left, however, the President must resign because she is “complicit in the genocide in Gaza because of her inaction.”

The proposals will be voted on on Thursday, October 9, already knowing almost with certainty that they will fail to achieve the target of two-thirds of the vote, since no one among Socialists & Democrats, Greens, Renew, or the Conservatives has been willing to support them. In any case, the two initiatives have some similarities, even if the two groups will not support each other.

The censure motions

The Patriots focused on the economic problems and the “senseless” enlargements of the Union. As stated by Bardella, ‘With the accession of Turkey, we will have states like Syria and Iraq as borders.” At the same time, on the subject of agreements with the United States, “Europe has signed its commercial surrender with Trump.” The harshest criticism is on the trade agreement with Mercosur and, above all, on the proposal on the new CAP (Common Agricultural Policy), “which has brought farmers to their knees.”

Many of these points are also dear to the Left. Aubry pointed out that “the President has closed the deal with Latin America by circumventing national governments, killing our agriculture, and killing us with dangerous pesticides.” The Left, unlike the Patriots, however, gave great weight to the crisis in Gaza. “The Commission has refused to cut off all trade relations with Israel, while we are on the 19th sanctions package against Russia,” recalled The Left’s group leader.

Von der Leyen’s reply

The President’s response was devoid of emotion or fear. The knowledge that the two motions would not gain the support of the hemicycle gave her the opportunity for a new unity speech, based on the seriousness of the external threats. “The world is in the most precarious and perilous state it has been in for decades. And Europe is on high alert because of reckless incursions into our airspace.” The accusation against her critics is that they boast about the ‘cracks of the edifice of Europe’ and the ‘shaken unity’ within our Union’.”

Among the Populars, it was her colleague Manfred Weber, group leader of the European People’s Party, who raised his voice in her place: “You have used this no-confidence motion as a mere propaganda tool; I hope you have collected enough videos for your social campaign.” Weber did not miss the common points between the two motions, suggesting that the two found “a new party called WAA (We Are Against, ed.),” adding that while von der Leyen was negotiating with Trump, the Patriots’ leaders were focused on doing something else. “Matteo Salvini was swimming among inflatables,” Weber added.

In a climate of brazen accusations, the most moderate (against all odds) seems to be Nicola Procaccini, the European Conservatives’ group leader. Regarding the agreement with Trump, he gave a nod to the majority: “It is not the perfect agreement, but the best possible.” The Italian also gave a warning addressed to the European Left: “Interestingly, the cause-and-effect link between the Green Deal and a social malaise is not being grasped, which is one of the reasons why Europeans are voting for the right and not the left.”