Von der Leyen faces crunch vote as EU chief
STRASBOURG, France—EU chief Ursula von der Leyen will face a make-or-break vote on Thursday when the European Parliament will decide whether to hand her another term helming the bloc’s executive arm.
The German ex-defense minister has led the European Commission since 2019, the first woman in the role. She has weathered several crises like the COVID pandemic and the war in Ukraine—and also faced many controversies.
Dealing a blow to von der Leyen a day before the vote, a top EU court ruled she failed to be transparent enough about coronavirus vaccine contracts.
But her supporters believe she will comfortably clinch the vote by secret ballot after holding weeks of negotiations with lawmakers to push them to back her.
Her detractors insist there is deep frustration with von der Leyen and point to the fact that she has a shaky majority since she won the vote in 2019 with only nine extra votes from MEPs.
Who to pick instead?
Von der Leyen needs at least 361 votes in the 720-seat parliament, which is holding its first sitting in the French city of Strasbourg since EU-wide elections in June.
This will likely be von der Leyen’s only shot since her candidacy was already hotly debated by EU leaders in June.
If the 65-year-old fails to get a majority, the 27 leaders will be expected to put forward a new name.
But growing political uncertainty worldwide and a potential second Donald Trump presidency across the Atlantic, with all the America First implications that would bring, are weighing on lawmakers’ minds.
‘Disaster’
Under EU treaties, the parliament must support the candidate or reject them, in which case the bloc’s leaders would have one month to put forward another nominee.
If von der Leyen secures a second term, she will have a growing list of problems to tackle including war in Ukraine and the risk of a wider conflict in the Middle East as well as the EU’s trade tensions with China.
“It would be a disaster if she does not win the vote,” a parliamentary source told AFP. “Who would we pick instead?”
Von der Leyen belongs to the biggest political group in the parliament, the conservative European People’s Party, which is in a centrist coalition with the Socialists and Democrats and the liberal Renew Europe groups.
In theory, that coalition has the numbers to get von der Leyen over the line.
Controlling nature