() –Ursula von der Leyen was re-elected for a second five-year term as president of the European Commission following a vote by European Union (EU) lawmakers, as the continent’s mainstream tries to assert itself against the remergence of the extreme right.
In a previous speech to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, von der Leyen promised this Thursday to invest in infrastructure and industry, create a new “European Defense Union” and stay the course in the continent’s green transition.
After a secret vote, von der Leyen was re-elected with 401 votes in favor and 284 against. He needed more than 360 votes to secure a majority in the 720-seat Parliament.
Von der Leyen, who led the Commission during the Covid-19 pandemic and the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, will now chair a bloc that moved to the right after the last month’s European electionsin which far-right parties won a record number of seats.
Addressing parliament before the midday vote, von der Leyen said the next five years of her mandate “will define Europe’s place in the world for the next five decades. It will decide whether we forge our own future or let it be forged by events or others.”
Von der Leyen, a 65-year-old German, fell as a parachutist in the presidential candidacy process in 2019, but since then she has become one of the strongest pillars in Europe. Several of the continent’s other leaders, from former German chancellor Angela Merkel to the president of France Emmanuel Macron, They have withdrawn or been weakened by internal politics.
von der Leyen’s own position was somewhat undermined by last month’s election, which saw support for the far right increase and centrist ground in Brussels shrink.
Her re-election was not certain, but widely expected, after she was proposed by EU leaders and could count on the support of her center-right European People’s Party (EPP), as well as the Socialist and Democratic blocs. (S&D), center-left, and Liberal Renewal. Shortly before Thursday’s vote, the Green bloc also announced that it would support it.
After the vote, von der Leyen said that her re-election was “a very emotional and special moment” and that she was grateful for the trust that Parliament had placed in her.
“We have spared no effort. We have navigated the roughest waters our bloc has ever faced. And we have stayed the course towards our long-term European objectives,” he said, praising the work done during his first term.
Early this Thursday, von der Leyen published a 31-page policy proposal outlining her priorities if she wins a second term.
Echoing his remarks after last month’s vote, he stressed that “it is essential that Europe’s democratic center remains” in the face of a resurgence of extremes, and urged mainstream parties to “rise up to the concerns and challenges that people face in their lives.
Von der Leyen pledged to “accelerate the investment” cash-strapped EU governments need for their “ecological, digital and social transition.”
He also promised to create a European Defense Union and appoint a defense commissioner, a new role for the bloc that was forged in peacetime but has since had to respond to Russia’s brutal war in Ukraine, and the possibility of a United States led by Donald Trump that moves away from the world stage.
Under the proposed new defense union, member states will retain responsibility for their own troops but will work more closely with others to “coordinate efforts to strengthen the defense industrial base.” He also proposed a European-wide air defense system and cyber protection measures.
In a speech in Strasbourg ahead of her re-election, von der Leyen said Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s recent trip to Moscow to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin was “a mission of appeasement,” and promised maintain the bloc’s support for Ukraine.
von der Leyen’s re-election comes a day after the European Union’s second highest court issued a rare rebuke to the commission, ruling that it was not sufficiently transparent in the contracts it signed for Covid-19 vaccines during the pandemic.
‘s Lauren Kent contributed to this report.
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