MEPs swung behind European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on October 9, ensuring two no-confidence motions failed.
Groups on the Left and Right of the European Parliament refused to support each other’s motions, meaning she survived by comfortable majorities.
“For many [right-wing Patriots’] members, [the reasons for voting against The Left’s motion is explained by] the aggressiveness in their speech and unwillingness to work together with us on bringing Ursula von der Leyen down,” Anders Vistisen, MEP from the Patriots for Europe, told Brussels Signal right after the ballots.
“Today’s vote reveals the deepening rift between the people of the EU and the European Commission in Brussels”, Co-Chair of The Left Martin Schirdewan wrote in a press release.
The motions were far from reaching the 361 votes needed to topple the EC chief: The Patriots’ attempt garnered 179 MEP’s votes, and the Left’s initiative, voted on immediately after, just 133.
Only a couple of MEPs from the Left voted for the Patriots’ motion.
Unlike what the right-wing group has been saying, though, they did not vote in favour of The Left’s motion.
“The developments over the week changed the vote in the last 48 hours,” Vistisen said.
“The Left’s attack on our motion and their support for Hamas terrorism ended up with a free vote, most abstained and others voted … against”, he explained.
The Left has supported the “unconditional” recognition of the Palestine State to put an end to the war, but recently, their stance has been “more aggressive,” Vistisen added.
The Patriot’s motion collected four more votes than another right-wing motion that was voted on in July, submitted by the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR).
Just fewer than half of the ECR Group supported this new right-wing motion, despite the similarities between the two groups’ criticism of the EC chief and her team.
When asked if they would consider collaboration with The Left to table one motion instead of two, Vistisen said: “We’ll assess in two months.” A broad alliance would be ideal, he said.
Some of the other right-wing parties did vote for The Left’s initiative, making less distinction between the origin of the two censure initiatives.
MEPs on the left of the hemicycle, the Socialists and the Greens, showed no support for the Patriots’ initiative: Around a dozen out of the 189 members of the two groups combined voted in favour of it.
Not all of the left side of the assembly voted for the left-wing motion: About 80 per cent of The Left members supported their own motion.
Support from the Socialists was also lacking.
“We regret that most members of the Socialist and Green groups did not support our Motion of Censure, even though the European Commission is currently dismantling or delaying key legislation for human rights and the climate”, Co-Chair of The Left Manon Aubry wrote.
“She [von der Leyen] is supported by the Greens and the Social Democrats, who seem more concerned with keeping their positions than with their campaign promises or the policies they otherwise claim to stand for,” Schirdewan wrote.
Aubry added: “Nevertheless, this motion of censure sends a strong message to the von der Leyen Commission: we will not allow democracy to be trampled on, our sovereignty to be surrendered, or international law to be violated.”
Few if any of the Liberals in the Renew Europe group voted for either motion, same goes for MEPs from von der Leyen’s own European People’s Party (EPP), composed of 188 members.
