Von der Leyen will speak “individually” with MEPs outside the centrist coalition to win re-election

BRUSSELS, June 28 () –

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced on Friday that she will speak “individually” with MEPs outside the centrist coalition, made up of the Popular Party, Socialists and Liberals, in order to win re-election to the European Parliament.

At a press conference after the European summit in which the leaders have supported her candidacy for re-election as community president, Von der Leyen has announced that she will contact MEPs beyond the centrist coalition, which maintains the majority in the European Parliament after the elections. European elections, to guarantee the vote, which will probably be on July 18.

“It is a matter of convincing, if possible, a large majority. We are going to work for the next three weeks and we will see,” he said after emphasizing that the contacts will include MEPs separately and from different groups, as long as they are pro-European politicians, support to Ukraine and defend the rule of law.

During the electoral campaign for the European elections, Von der Leyen showed herself willing to negotiate with ultra-conservative parties such as Fratelli di Italia of the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, while socialists and liberals warned that these pacts were a red line.

The German politician’s candidacy was finally approved without the support of the Italian Prime Minister, who abstained, she later told the press, “out of respect for the different positions” within the majority that forms her government, which also includes forces from the EPP, although she considers her nomination to be “a mistake.”

Asked about this, Von der Leyen stressed that it will be important to work in the future with Meloni, as well as with other Member States. “It’s a principle that I follow all the time,” she said.