Giorgia Meloni seems intent on demonstrating that she can be a reliable (perhaps even indispensable) partner for the new European Commission led by Ursula von der Leyen. After having abstained in the European Council on the nomination of the German, and after the Brothers of Italy even voted against the confidence in the European Parliament, now things seem to have changed and the time of the clashes seems just a distant memory.
The ‘operational majority’
Hearings of the candidates for the role of commissioner in the new executive are underway in Brussels, and so far the conservative and reformist group Ecr (of which FdI is a member and of whose European party Meloni is the leader), has given its green light to everyone, expressing a reservation only on one nomination that had divided the group, that of the Belgian Hadja Lahbib. The commissioners’ hearings are public, but the opinions of the groups are not always communicated, even if they actually leak out.
In the first four days of hearings, the ECR did not publish any press release, but according to various rumors it supported 19 out of 20 appointments. The approval of the commissioners must come by a qualified majority in a vote of only the leaders of the political groups. This speeds up the process even if, when this qualified majority is not reached, a simple majority may suffice which however must arrive with a vote of the deputies.
The von der Leyen majority is already split: the People’s Party allies themselves with the far right
So far the Conservatives have allowed the process to proceed quickly, thus also qualifying themselves as fundamental partners to achieve broad convergence in the Chamber. Their contribution demonstrates that the group is now part of the “operational majority” of the Parliament, while “without the ECR did not have a two-thirds majority” for any commissioner, a source from the group declared to Politico, an influential European newspaper specializing in community politics.
Defending Fitto
However, there are also other reasons for this behavior. The group, which makes sovereignty one of its flags, wants to demonstrate that it respects the will of each member country. Furthermore, the Conservatives are not interested in a clash with other political groups, especially with the socialists and liberals. This is because next Tuesday, November 12, it will be the turn of the Italian Raffaele Fitto to come under scrutiny by the deputies. And things won’t be very simple for him.
Socialists and liberals contested his appointment as executive vice-president, a position according to these groups that should not have been entrusted to a radical right formation and to a party that did not support von der Leyen in the European Council. For this reason, it cannot be ruled out that Fitto could be ‘sent back’ and that, after the hearing, he could be asked to answer further questions or even have to return to the Chamber.
Slap to Orbán: the Hungarian commissioner ‘sent back’
So far the only one to obtain such a result has been the Hungarian Olivier Varhelyi, challenged for his answers deemed unconvincing on abortion and vaccines, but who in fact ended up under the crossfire of socialists and liberals who wanted to hit Viktor Orban through of him (also because abortion is not an issue over which the European Union has competence).
The EPP acts as a shield
But Fitto can still sleep soundly, having been armored by the People’s Party, who are ready to make the Socialists pay if something goes wrong at the hearing of the Italian candidate. “Simul stabunt, simul cadent”, declared Forzista Fulvio Martusciello, quoting the Latin saying which means “together they will stand or together they will fall”. The reference is to the Spanish socialist, Teresa Ribera, candidate like Fitto for the position of executive vice president. The socialists “continue to threaten Fitto with an empty gun, forgetting that Teresa Ribera’s hearing is scheduled after Fitto’s”, warned Martusciello, implying that the rejection of the former would lead to the rejection of the latter.
