Metsola’s blow to Socialists and Liberals: ‘Get the votes where you can find them’

Brussels – The European legislature is not exactly running smoothly. On the contrary, it is showing limits, fragility, and tensions, as seen by the lack of agreement on the simplification of due diligence. Just the latest episode in a situation that has become untenable for many, but not for the People’s Party (EPP), which is forging ahead. “The message to the leaders is: get the votes wher you can find them,” cuts short the president of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola (member of the People’s Party), who hints at how, in the name of pragmatism, they will proceed from here on. 

In the press conference after the usual exchange with EU heads of state and government at the European Council summit, Metsola also tries to put a stop to political and institutional bickering. The German Chancellor, Friedrich Merz, arrives in Brussels and defines as “unacceptable” the vote of the Chamber of the European Parliament on due diligence, with Metsola avoiding a direct response to the German leader without, however, venturing any clarifications: “I do not question the freedom and prerogatives of the European Parliament. I explained that yesterday’s vote showed that for a huge section of the Parliament, this compromise did not go far enough. For some sections, it went too far.” That said, she assured, “the European Parliament remains committed to simplification.”

 However, this is where the entirely political issue arises: the fact that the EPP no longer worries about displeasing socialists, liberals, and even the Greens, to shift to the right. “The majority from the center outwards is the starting point,” to achieve the necessary numbers to approve the dossiers, Metsola insists. Words of defiance, which sound like a slap in the face of the allies of an Ursula majority that is no longer there, but because it was already fragile from the outset.

The EPP, the true winning force of the European elections, now uses this power to make and unmake decisions, confident in the numbers it holds in Parliament, and puts its allies under pressure, who are unable to pull the plug. Metsola reassures the leaders, confirming that an agreement will be reached on corporate transparency and accountability, that the text will be voted on during the plenary session scheduled in Brussels on November 13, and that simplification in this area will be achieved by the end of the year. It remains to be seen what the majority will be by that date, and how today’s quarrelsome and tense EU will be able to move forward.