Scholz defends that the European Commission should not count on the support of the extreme right for its next mandate

BERLIN, May 25. (DPA/EP) –

The German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has defended that the European Commission should not rely on the extreme right for its next mandate, after the current president of the organization and candidate for re-election, Ursula von der Leyen, has left the door open to a possible collaboration with the European Conservatives and Reformists (CRE) bloc, which includes parties of this ideology.

“To me, it is clear that when the next Commission is formed [Europea] It should not be based on a majority in Parliament that also requires the support of right-wing extremists,” Scholz said at a joint press conference with Portuguese Prime Minister Luís Montenegro in Berlin.

In this sense, the German president said he felt “very saddened by the ambiguity of some of the political statements” heard recently.

At the end of April, Von der Leyen did not rule out cooperating with the CRE, to which, among others, the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s party, Brothers of Italy, also belong.

“It will depend a lot on the composition of Parliament and who is in that group,” the president then stated in response to a question from the environmentalist candidate, Bas Eickhout, about a possible collaboration between the conservatives she leads and the aforementioned formation.

In this regard, Von der Leyen has argued before the European Parliament that she worked “very well with Giorgia Meloni in the European Council, as (she does) with all heads of state and prime ministers.”

The president of the Commission has in any case ruled out collaborating with the extreme right of Identity and Democracy, which brings together Eurosceptic groups from central and northern Europe such as the Alternative for Germany (AfD), National Regrouping (France) or the League (Italy). .

Von der Leyen is the candidate of the European People’s Party (EPP) for a new five-year term as president of the European Commission. To do this, she needs the support of the simple majority of the European Parliament following the elections scheduled for June 6-9.