The vote of confidence for a second term for Ursula von der Leyen as President of the Commission creates factions within the majority between the League and Forza Italia. Vice President Antonio Tajani, speaking at the “Anuman2024” event, stressed that in the election of the vice-presidents of the European Parliament, the two candidates of the Conservatives and Reformists, the group in which Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy sits, were elected. But, he added “without controversy”, instead “the vice-presidents of the Patriots”, the group in which the League sits, “were not elected, who once again prove to be irrelevant”. “The problem is that even the Italian patriots risk being irrelevant within the European patriots”, he then continued, taking a swipe at the party led by Matteo Salvini.
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And these words “without controversy” were not well received in the Carroccio. “Voting with Elly Schlein for a seat is embarrassing”, sources from the League said in response to the words of the leader of Forza Italia, referring to the fact that Forza Italia and Democrats voted together to vote confidence in von der Leyen. “Better without vice-presidents than with the Greens and the left”, the sources from the League continued. The head of the Carroccio delegation to the EU Parliament, Paolo Borchia, in an interview with Today had already pointed the finger at Forza Italia and the People’s Party, claiming that they had “betrayed” the promises made to voters by participating in a majority that also includes the Greens, given that the latter were decisive in passing the confidence vote.
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Tajani himself gave a piqued counter-response. “Some say that we voted like Schlein and the Greens, I could say that those who voted no voted like Salis and Conte. But that would be a childish response,” he said, underlining that not only the group of Patriots of Europe, Viktor Orban’s creation which Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National also joined, but also the radical left of The Left, which includes the 5 Star Movement and the two elected members of the Italian Left quota of Avs, Ilaria Salis and Mimmo Lucano, expressed their opposition to the vote of confidence.
The votes in the Strasbourg Parliament in favor of von der Leyen were 401, 40 more than the minimum majority of 361, and exactly the sum of the votes of the parties that support her: popular, socialist and liberal. But the precision of the number does not at all signal the compact support of her coalition, on the contrary. The snipers were more than 50 but the ones who put a patch on it were the Greens, who have 53 parliamentarians and supported the reconfirmation.
