‘No Conservatives’: EU Socialists Issue Ultimatum to Commission President

To hell with a workable government! This is OUR EU! Or so say the 'democratic' socialist group in the European Parliament. Their commitment to democracy is just a veneer.

From The European Conservative

By Tamás Orbán

The S&D threatens to blow up the ‘Ursula coalition’ if von der Leyen allows a conservative “into the heart of the Commission.”

The social democrat (S&D) group in Brussels is not happy about some of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s plans for distributing portfolios in her new cabinet. They voiced their disagreements along with the rest of the Left by demanding better representation for themselves—and that she deny Italy’s conservative candidate an earmarked top seat in the new Commission.

If S&D’s “expectations” remain unmet, it would be “very difficult, even impossible” to support von der Leyen’s cabinet when it is presented for Parliamentary approval, the group threatened the Commission president.

The situation seems serious, as von der Leyen decided to postpone Wednesday’s meeting with the heads of the European Parliament (EP) groups. Here, she was supposed to present her preliminary plan for distributing portfolios among the commissioner candidates.

As we explained previously, the socialists have been fuming at the prospects of holding only four seats in the incoming 27-member Commission, despite being the second-largest party in the EP, compared to the 15 seats held by von der Leyen’s centrist European People’s Party (EPP) group.

After all, there are socialist-led governments in the European Union at the moment, but since Germany gave up its seat to get von der Leyen reelected, S&D was naively expecting her to pressure a center-right government (namely, Luxembourg’s) to nominate an opposition politician instead, which—of course—never happened.

So now the employment portfolio that belonged to Luxembourg’s outgoing socialist commissioner is earmarked for the EPP, which is another grave offense in the eyes of the Left. They want Nicolas Schmit to come back, even if forcing his return would violate Luxembourg’s sovereign choice. The S&D believes he deserves a seat just because he was the group’s Spitzenkandidat, even though they finished in second place—and not even the first place would guarantee anything under the treaties.

But the Left’s biggest problem is with the recent revelations that von der Leyen is planning to create a fourth executive vice presidency and give it to Italy’s candidate, former EU affairs minister Raffaele Fitto—meaning, for the first time, the European Conservative and Reformist (ECR) group would have a seat within the highest circle of the EU executive along with the EPP, the S&D, and the liberal Renew.

When news broke about Fitto’s possible appointment as executive VP, Renew immediately called it unacceptable and “politically incomprehensible,” while the Greens said that if anyone, it should have been them awarded the post, since it was their additional votes got von der Leyen reelected. Putting a “far-right” politician in a VP role would “deliberately undermine the democratic and pro-European coalition of July,” the Greens argued.

Now the socialists have joined the other two groups with an ultimatum, threatening to blow up the ‘Ursula coalition’ if their demands remain unmet. Specifically, S&D wants: 

• Schmit reinstated, by whatever means
• to hold onto their employment portfolio
• to deny the executive VP post to Fitto
• to  prompt additional efforts to ensure gender balance in the new cabinet, absurdly (the hill that von der Leyen has already died on in the past few weeks).

According to the S&D:

Ignoring the Spitzenkandidaten process, weakening gender balance in the College [of Commissioners], appointing a commissioner for employment whose commitment to social rights is at best questionable, and proactively placing the ECR at the heart of the Commission: this would be a recipe for losing progressive support.

“If these expectations are not met … it will be very difficult, even impossible, to support the commissioners presented by Ursula von der Leyen,” the document concludes, with menace.

Realistically, however, there’s not much von der Leyen can do to restore Schmit so long as his party is not in government back home. Continuing to chase an elusive gender balance in the Commission would be both pointless and also humiliating at this stage.

On the other hand, von der Leyen could change her mind about Fitto’s executive VP appointment, but she needs to decide what’s less damaging for her: alienating the Left or alienating Italy and betraying Prime Minister Meloni again.

Pictured: Iratxe García Pérez, Leader of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats