Strasbourg, Jul. 18, (dpa/GNA) – The European Parliament on Thursday re-elected Ursula von der Leyen for a second term as president of the European Commission with 401 votes in her favour.
Von der Leyen said in a press conference after she would work intensively with the EU lawmakers who backed her and described her coalition of supporters as “pro-European, pro-Ukraine, pro-rule of law.”
The first woman to lead the EU’s executive arm, von der Leyen campaigned on her crisis management record in response to the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine and the Covid-19 pandemic.
Von der Leyen’s successful re-election to lead the powerful commission for another five years is a signal of stability for the European Union during testing times of war and surging far-right movements.
Von der Leyen, a member of the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) faced a tight vote – in 2019 she only secured the post by nine votes. Her majority a second time around was much bigger at 41 in a secret paper ballot.
The parliament released updated seat figures after the announcement of von der Leyen’s election to state the EU legislature is currently composed of 719 EU lawmakers.
Von der Leyen therefore needed to get a majority of at least 360 votes to be re-elected. In total, 284 votes were cast against von der Leyen with 15 abstentions and seven votes declared invalid.
Since her nomination by EU leaders in June, von der Leyen has tried to build a broad coalition of support in the EU legislature to secure a second term.
The centre-left Socialists and Democrats (S&D) and the liberal Renew Europe groups were the main sources of votes in the centrist coalition to re-elect von der Leyen, with 136 and 77 seats respectively. Her own EPP group is the biggest with 188 seats.
The S&D leader, Iratxe García Pérez, was among the first to congratulate von der Leyen on her re-election, declaring her group’s support in a post on X.
Pérez warned however that the S&D vote was “not a blank cheque” and the group would hold the commission to account under von der Leyen.
Valérie Hayer, leader of liberal Renew Europe, also told von der Leyen that her group’s support came with expectations that the commission would uphold the group’s values like the rule of law.
Co-leader of the environmentalist Greens, Terry Reintke said on X that the group supported von der Leyen after securing commitments to continue ambitious climate policies in von der Leyen’s next term.
“We keep the far-right out of power,” Reintke added.
The EU legislature, which now features two new far-right groups, is gathered in Strasbourg, France for the first time since the European elections that were characterized by a shift in support to the right.
In her speech to the European Parliament before the vote, von der Leyen pledged action on the EU’s economy and defence industry while promising to defend democracy.
Von der Leyen told EU lawmakers she was “ready to lead the fight” against extremist political forces.
The speech trod a fine line, balancing plans to support industry and businesses with social policies like a new focus on housing.
Von der Leyen announced new EU funds to boost economic competitiveness and industrial development in clean energy technology and pledged that the commission would address housing in the EU for the first time with the policy area added to a commissioner’s responsibilities.
Other measures included a pledge to legally enshrine a target to reduce EU carbon emissions by 90% by 2040, however, von der Leyen said that she would push for exemptions for so-called e-fuels in the bloc’s contested phase-out of combustion engines.
Von der Leyen also proposed to beef up the EU’s border controls and triple the number of border guards and coastguards to 30,000. She also laid out plans to bolster Europol, the EU’s law enforcement agency.
The former German defence minister also promised to establish a new commissioner for defence that will help build a “true European Defence Union” for the arms industry.
In a policy document published before the vote, von der Leyen stressed that EU countries will always be responsible for their armies.
Von der Leyen also said she plans to create a new commissioner for oceans and fisheries.
In a notable overture to business-friendly parties in the parliament, von der Leyen promised her commission would tackle regulation and bureaucracy to “get rid of burdensome micromanagement.”
In a sharp aside, von der Leyen again condemned Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s recent visit to Moscow as “nothing more than an appeasement mission.”
On paper, von der Leyen had a majority with this coalition with 401 seats from these three groups. However, defections were possible under the vote’s secret ballot.
Von der Leyen was not even guaranteed to gain every vote from her own group, the EPP, due to disagreements over the impact of climate policy on farmers, for example.
Irish members of the Renew Europe group meanwhile said they wouldn’t back von der Leyen over her commission’s support for Israel during the war on Hamas in Gaza.
During the European elections, von der Leyen courted support among EU legislators from the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s far-right Brothers of Italy (FdI) as a buffer of support.
However, the FdI’s Nicola Procaccini, from the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), declined to say clearly if his group, or fellow Italian EU lawmakers, would vote for von der Leyen, and referenced national interests in his parliament speech ahead of the vote.
Von der Leyen later defended the approach the FDL as the result of her re-election “speaks for itself.”
The commission president leads the EU’s powerful executive arm, charged with developing new EU policies, enforcing existing EU laws and representing the bloc at international summits like the G7.
Von der Leyen said she would start interviewing nominees from EU member states for her new commission in mid-August and requested that every EU country puts forward a male and a female candidate.
GNA