05 September 2024

EURACTIV: The Brief – Von der Leyen’s balancing act

President Ursula von der Leyen has a delicate political balance to strike in her picks for the most important jobs in the EU’s executive: the one-on-one talks with national leaders, and the overall party-political makeup of both national governments and the European Parliament.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has a delicate political balance to strike in her picks for the most important jobs in the EU’s executive: in addition to the one-on-one back-room talks with national leaders who nominate commissioners, she also needs to consider the overall party-political makeup of both national governments and the European Parliament.

A report in the German newspaper Die Welt on Monday (2 September), citing anonymous sources, suggested von der Leyen is planning to give a senior or executive vice-presidential role to Raffaele Fitto, the nominee of Italy’s firebrand Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. This was confirmed today by von der Layen’s most senior Italian ally in the European Parliament, Fulvio Martusciello.

Some in Brussels suspect the leak came from von der Leyen’s own team, in order to test the waters for any resistance. That is unconfirmed, but if it’s the case then Fitto’s appointment to high office looks like a calculated risk that could pay off for von der Leyen.

Von der Leyen’s centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) is the largest group in the European Parliament, but it doesn’t have a majority. She can find a majority among the centrist groups, but without at least some support from Meloni’s European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), it’s likely to be a slim one that won’t always be reliable.

The next-largest group after the EPP is the centre-left Socialists & Democrats (S&D), which supported her bid for a second term on the condition she does not get too close to what the S&D sees as far-right groups, including the ECR.

The commission president courted Meloni in the run-up to the parliament’s confirmatory vote on her second term in July. Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party is the largest delegation to the ECR, which did well in the EU elections. Having secured her first term in 2019 with only a wafer-thin majority, von der Leyen appeared to need all the friends she could get.

But von der Layen’s overtures to the Italian prime minister prompted S&D leaders to warn their delegates not to back her for a second term unless she stuck firmly to the centre.

At an EU summit in late June, EU leaders infuriated Meloni by declining to give any of the bloc’s most senior jobs – such as foreign affairs chief or European Council president – to anyone from the ECR.

Von der Leyen then coasted back into office without requiring the ECR’s help, instead relying on votes from the S&D and the liberal Renew group, as well as the EPP.

Her de facto manifesto – officially called her “political guidelines” – was written with that centrist coalition in mind. She promised to “stay the course” on climate policies that ECR members strongly criticise. The ECR is unlikely to change tack on her green agenda, no matter what job Fitto gets.

Nevertheless, some Brussels insiders argue that bringing the ECR into the commission leadership is still worth it, especially if it broadens the divide between Meloni’s alliance and Viktor Orbán’s new Patriots group.

For one thing, both Meloni and Poland’s Law and Justice Party, the ECR’s next-largest delegation, strongly support Ukraine, while Orbán seems more sympathetic to Vladimir Putin.

Another argument for Fitto is that he’s Italian: a founding member of the European Community and the EU’s third-largest member state by population.

Meanwhile, von der Leyen could spare the S&D’s blushes by offering some plum jobs to centre-left nominees, such as Spain’s Teresa Ribeira.

With von der Leyen’s political priorities already set, comprehensive ECR support is probably beyond her reach. But that doesn’t mean the commission chief can’t broaden her tent a little and avoid making a powerful enemy in Giorgia Meloni – provided she can keep her left-wing allies on board.

This article was updated to include a confirmation by Fulvio Martusciello of the Commission’s role of  Raffaele Fitto.

 

EURACTIV

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