Von der Leyen saves the vote of no confidence despite aligning herself with the far right and blocking the green agenda.

StrasbourgNo surprises in the European Parliament. The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has comfortably overcome the vote of no confidence, although in recent days she has become a in the target of criticism from the extreme right and the parties that support her in parliament: the Social Democrats, the Liberals, and the Greens. Thus, despite emerging unscathed, the image of the German conservative has been tarnished, and the weakness of her support in the European Parliament has been evident.

However, opposition to the motion of no confidence has been clear: 360 MEPs voted against overthrowing the executive led by Von der Leyen, 175 voted in favor, and 18 abstained. However, they did not vote for 176 representatives, and, in fact, from the press gallery at the European Parliament headquarters in Strasbourg, a rather empty chamber was visible. Nor was the President of the European Commission herself present, who participated in the debate on the motion last Monday and is in Rome this Thursday for the fourth international conference to rebuild Ukraine.

Despite the majority rejection of the motion of censure, Von der Leyen has managed to garner less support than she managed to secure re-election as President of the European Commission exactly one year ago, when she obtained 401 votes in favor. This shows that she has lost support in the first year of her second term at the head of the Community executive.

The vast majority of MEPs in the grand coalitionThe Social Democrats, Liberals, and Greens, who form the European People's Party, voted against it. However, the voting discipline of the European Parliament is not as strict as it can be, for example, in the Catalan Parliament, and there are always representatives who break it. No representative of the People's Party voted in favor of the motion, but Catalan MEPs Diana Riba (ERC) and Jaume Asens (Comuns) voted despite being members of the Els Verds MEP group. The only Catalans who voted in favor of the motion are Jorge Buxadé and Juan Carlos Girauta of Vox.

Part of the far right promoted the motion of no confidence, but not the entire bloc voted against von der Leyen. It is symptomatic that MEPs from the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group, led by the party of Italian Giorgia Meloni, did not show up at the European Parliament plenary session. In fact, the President of the European Commission has broken the cordon sanitaire with much of the far right and has allied to toughen rules against immigrants and to curb the European Union's green agenda.

In recent days, both the Social Democrats and the Liberals had threatened the Conservatives with abstaining from the vote on the motion of no confidence, warning them that they cannot continue to approach the far right and curb the green agenda. Ultimately, they obtained counter-arguments from von der Leyen and reaffirmed their support for her. Specifically, the European Socialist Party managed to protect the European Social Fund, which was threatened by the most right-wing European Commission in history, and the liberals agreed to strengthen the requirement that the disbursement of European funds be conditional on compliance with the values of the European Union, according to MEPs.

Von der Leyen is playing a double game.

Beyond the trade-offs, the Social Democrats and Liberals aren't interested in abandoning von der Leyen either. They know the European People's Party no longer needs them to secure majorities in the European Parliament, and simply allying with the far right is enough. Therefore, despite their negotiating power being less than it was last term, they don't want to lose the influence they have over the EU executive, and even less do they intend to completely give it away to far-right parties.

In fact, the EPP is primarily allying with the far right to dismantle the green agenda that von der Leyen herself promoted during her last term as head of the European Commission. For example, just this week, the People's Party (PP) backed the far-right Patriots for Europe party to chair the European Parliament's committee, which will need to draft regulations to meet the climate target of reducing CO₂ emissions by 90% by 2040 compared to 1990 levels. This same legislative proposal also included various flexibility in compliance, allowing Member States to buy emissions rights from poor countries so the EU can pollute more.