The EP begins its 10th legislature on Tuesday with Von der Leyen’s re-election at stake and new far-right groups

BRUSSELS, Jul 15 () –

The tenth term of the European Parliament will begin on Tuesday with a plenary session in which its current president, Roberta Metsola, will renew her position since 2022, while next Thursday the re-election of the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, will be put to a vote, who is supported by a narrow majority of MEPs.

This plenary session will focus primarily on institutional decisions for the first constituent session, although there will also be time for a debate and resolution on Ukraine.

It will also be a session in which Junts MEP Toni Comín will not participate, because his seat remains vacant after the Central Electoral Board (JEC) did not include him on the final list for not having complied with the procedure of compliance with the Constitution. Comín requested precautionary measures on Thursday before the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) but this Monday he said from Strasbourg that he is returning to Brussels as there is still no decision from the European Court of Justice.

The plenary session will therefore start on Tuesday with Metsola’s approval and the 14 vice-presidents will also be elected – who, together with the president of the European Parliament and the five quaestors, make up the Bureau of the European Parliament – two Spanish MEPs are competing: the socialist Javi López and the ‘popular’ Esteban González Pons.

At the last minute, the European Left has put forward Podemos MEP Irene Montero as its candidate for the presidency of the European Parliament, although she has no chance of beating Metsola, who is the consensus option among the main groups in the European Parliament.

Decisions will be taken by secret ballot during the plenary session to be held in Strasbourg (France) between Tuesday and Thursday, in which Von der Leyen will seek to repeat the majority made up of the Popular Party, Socialists and Liberals that already supported her candidacy in 2019.

These three groups have a total of 401 seats in the 720-seat parliament, which is more fragmented and smaller – with 27 fewer seats after the UK left the EU – than five years ago, when the German politician became the first woman to head the EU executive. Von der Leyen needs to add 361 seats to pass the re-election, which forces her to seek support outside the fragile majority of the centre-left coalition to compensate for possible last-minute changes.

Not in vain, only her own political family, the European People’s Party (EPP, with 188 seats), has guaranteed the head of the Community Executive unwavering support, since social democrats and liberals condition their support on respect for their own priorities, while they have drawn a red line on any cooperation with the extreme right, which in this legislature has managed to form three groups and so far have 187 seats.

They are the Conservatives and Reformists (78) led by the Brothers of Italy of the transalpine Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni; the Patriots for Europe (84) promoted by the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, and which also includes Vox and the parties of Marine Le Pen and Matteo Salvini; and the Europe of Sovereign Nations (25), created by the ultra-German party Alternative for Germany.

Although the Social Democratic (136) and Liberal (77) families have made it clear to Von der Leyen that she will not count on their votes if she makes a pact with the far-right groups, the German politician has tried to differentiate between the three groups and has extended her hand to Meloni’s party, stating that she will count on those who declare themselves pro-European, against the regime of Russian Vladimir Putin and defenders of the rule of law. In this context, ECR sources confirmed to Europa Press that Von der Leyen will participate in the group meeting early on Tuesday.

The Greens, who have said they are “ready to work constructively”, have also rejected any agreement with the far right, which they exclude from a “stable majority” of which they want to be a part, while calling for “no backtracking on climate policy”. The European Left, for its part, has clearly expressed that it will not support Von der Leyen’s re-election.