The great moment of the most powerful party in Europe

BrusselsNeither the DANA nor the power outage have managed to dampen the euphoria of the European People's Party (EPP) Congress held this week in Valencia. The conservative party is experiencing one of its most vibrant moments in history and is the largest party in the European Parliament, with the largest number of commissioners in Brussels and the largest number of state governments in the European Union. Its role in European politics is absolutely decisive. the right-wing shift that the continent is experiencing It still gives them more wings to continue increasing their power in the coming years. They have stopped gaining power. Back then, the conservatives were in opposition in nineteen countries and, according to the PP leader himself, "on the defensive." For example, Croatia; and they have taken over historic socialist strongholds, such as Sweden and Finland, as well as Latvia, Luxembourg, Ireland, and Portugal, which now hangs in the balance. which will lead the main European power with a coalition government with the Social Democrats.

Beyond the national level, the conservatives also have a clear hold on the European institutions. They hold the presidency of the European Commission and 14 out of 27 commissioners; almost half of the EU Council governments are controlled by the EPP, and it is the parliamentary group in the European Parliament with the most seats (188) and more than 50 MEPs ahead of the Social Democrats.

Faced with these numbers, Weber took the opportunity to attack the rest of the European political families left and right. Firstly, he wanted to make blood of the socialist decline throughout the EU and its ill-fated "dream" that "this would be the social democratic decade." At this point, the Party of European Socialists only holds four governments and its main leader at the European level is Pedro Sánchez. He also took a swipe at Emmanuel Macron, who removed him from leading the European Commission to prop up Von der Leyen, and sarcastically recalled the days when "the new liberals wanted to sound the death knell for the traditional parties."

He didn't forget the Greens either. Weber once again demonstrated that he is one of the main European leaders committed to scaling back the ambitions of the European green agenda and halting several climate change measures promoted by von der Leyen herself. Also ironically, the Bavarian leader lamented that the days when environmental parties "set the political agenda" are long gone.

However, the EPP president did not direct the same criticism toward the far-right parties, although he admitted that they are currently his main political rival, more so than the Social Democrats or Liberals. "Our main competitor is the extremists," Weber insisted. However, he has been one of the conservative leaders who, from the outset, has not had any qualms about making pacts with the far right, especially in the European Parliament. Unlike Von der Leyen, Weber belongs to the more hardline wing of the Christian Democrats and, for example, has never criticized the Spanish People's Party's agreements with Vox. Quite the opposite: she has always prioritized remaining in power and having influence over maintaining the cordon sanitaire. In fact, this is largely the reason why, despite the significant growth of the far right, the EPP is still the most powerful party in Europe.

Much more than a family

With these strong results under his belt, Weber has gradually consolidated his power within the EPP. Now he has built a more tailored team, with Catalan MEP Dolors Montserrat as his deputy, and he wants to transform the party into much more than a simple family of conservative political parties going about their own business. Although the Bavarian is not well-known by the vast majority of citizens, he navigates the political engine room well and is willing for the EPP to play a similar role at the European level to that of all the popular parties in their respective member states. In other words, for it to be truly influential in EU policy and have a say in the decisions its representatives make in the institutions.

At this point, von der Leyen often distances herself from the principles defended by the EPP and, above all, from Weber himself, who is her main internal political rival. In this way, the Bavarian leader is increasingly gaining the power to counterbalance the President of the European Commission and push her toward more right-wing positions, especially regarding immigration and the fight against climate change.