European Election

Ursula von der Leyen leaves door open to a second term with far-right backing

Talks will not be influenced by snap elections in France, commission president says

Ursula von der Leyen sidestepped questions on whether she would seek and accept support from Italian prime minister Georgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy (Fratelli d’Italia) and its Brussels grouping. Photograph: Maja Hitij/Getty Images

Derek Scally in Berlin
Mon Jun 10 2024 - 19:10

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen will “leave doors open” to accepting far-right support should previous mainstream allies in the European Parliament fail to back her nomination for a second term.

In her first appearance since her European People’s Party (EPP) won the weekend election, Ms von der Leyen sidestepped questions on whether she would seek and accept support from Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy (Fratelli d’Italia) and its Brussels grouping, European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR). Another group, Identity and Democracy (ID), is dominated by France’s Marine Le Pen and her National Rally (RN).

“The groups have yet to form and no one is clear who is in which group and how big individual groups will be,” Ms von der Leyen said. “To save time I will talk to those with whom I have worked well in the past, but that leaves doors open.”

Ms von der Leyen insisted the clear sequencing of talks – with two rounds of talks among heads of state and government later this month – would not be influenced by the snap parliamentary elections in France.

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On Monday she received firm backing from her own political camp, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in Berlin, and Bavaria’s Christian Social Union (CSU). Together they won the European election in Germany with 30 per cent of the vote, helping the EPP to a clear lead in the next parliament.

CDU chairman Friedrich Merz congratulated Ms von der Leyen, a former cabinet minister in Berlin, and said he expected the Berlin government led by Olaf Scholz to “interpret the election result as it is” and nominate her for a second term.

Questioned on warnings from the Scholz cabinet that the commission president should not secure a second term with far-right support, Mr Merz said “election losers are not in a position to dictate with whom we speak and with whom we don’t speak”.

“Those who have organised democracy demonstrations in the last weeks should stick to the rules of democracy, by which the majority is clear for Ursula von der Leyen for a second term as European Commission president,” Mr Merz said.

The two CDU politicians know they face a delicate balancing act in the coming months: potentially working with the kind of parties at EU level that, at home, Mr Merz has dismissed as political allies.

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In advance of weeks of delicate negotiations, Ms von der Leyen insisted the message of the European election is how “the centre has held”.

Wins for her EPP, she said, “shows that you can withstand the pressure from the extremes and be successful while holding responsibility in the European Union”.

Asked about her priorities for a possible second term, Ms von der Leyen said she would focus even more on efforts to create a “protective shield” for European democracy against foreign disinformation campaigns.

She would continue, too, the EU’s efforts to tackle climate change – but in a way that did not harm economic growth. The health of her homeland’s economy, currently in recession, could play a key role here.

While the EU has moved to ban traditional engines by 2035, Germany’s CDU/CSU campaigned in the European election to reverse that decision – a rescue ring to its car industry, which is a huge employer and taxpayer.

Ms von der Leyen insisted any second-term climate change approach would be marked by pragmatism, investment, innovation and a “technologically open approach” – in Germany a dog whistle to defenders of the internal combustion engine.

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Germany’s liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP), the most CDU-friendly member of the Scholz coalition in Berlin, saw “substantive conditions” to backing her nomination. As well as backing petrol and diesel engines and the new migration pact, FDP leader Christian Lindner said the new commission president “should also not take any initiative for European Community debt”.

This hot-button issue in Berlin is likely to dominate the next five-year term in Brussels.

Derek Scally

Derek Scally

Derek Scally is an Irish Times journalist based in Berlin

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