The European People's Party yesterday closed ranks around Ursula von der Leyen and left behind its differences over the political orientation of its current mandate to designate the German leader as its official candidate to preside over the European Commission for five more years around a common manifesto. which will be the basis of the national programs for the elections to the European Parliament on June 9.
There were no names other than his on the ballots and, of the 489 valid votes cast at the end of the congress that the party held in Bucharest, 400 were in favor of Von der Leyen. This time, unlike in 2019, when she arrived at the top of the European Commission directly promoted by the leaders of the Twenty-Seven, after an agreement between Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel, the German is following all the procedures established by her party to renew her contract for five more years and has assumed that, to do so, he will have to defend more conservative positions than until now on defense, climate policy or immigration.
Von der Leyen has not only agreed to submit to the process, running as a candidate and formally asking for support from the EPP to be its Spitzenkantidatin or head of the list (the term is misleading, strictly speaking she is not running for elections and does not aspire to any seat, but the party states in its statutes that this is its way of deciding who is its candidate for the Commission). Perhaps responding to rumors that she is not keen on campaigning, Von der Leyen was enthusiastic about the prospect.
“We have a fantastic manifesto and we are united in the messages. There are 90 days left until the elections, it is time to go out to the streets to convince the people and win their hearts! ”He said. “Here we are, we are going to win these elections,” she proclaimed surrounded by the first swords of the EPP at the closing of the congress, where she arrived supported by the prime ministers of Poland, Donald Tusk, and Greece Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who highlighted “her firm leadership.” ” during the pandemic, the Russian invasion of Ukraine or the energy crisis.
Except for her criticized trip to Israel to give full support to the Government of Benyamin Netanyahu in its military offensive on Gaza, Von der Leyen has not made any major mistakes during her mandate and has managed to gain the support of European Council leaders beyond the acronym of the EPP or Northern Europe. Her designation as a candidate at the European summit in June is taken for granted, but confirmation may be at risk in the European Parliament, where, given the EPP's flirtations with the extreme right, socialists and greens could divide and not support her as they did in the 2019.
Von der Leyen reiterated yesterday that she will not agree with “Putin's friends”, alluding to the parties of Marine Le Pen and Viktor Orbán, but several members of the EPP govern at the national level in coalition with far-right parties and she does not rule out seeking their collaboration during the next legislature, as long as they are “pro-European and pro-Ukraine.” In recent weeks, the German has taken on the toughening of certain policies requested by the EPP and openly defends that the EU must give a financial boost to the European defense industry to confront the Russian threat.
The candidate assured that all the initiatives included in the EPP's electoral manifesto, including the commitment to outsourcing asylum claims to safe third countries, are "in accordance with international law and European legislation." Pressured by the tractors registered throughout Europe, as president of the Commission she has also agreed to some of the demands of the farmers, a fishing ground for votes that her party increasingly disputes with the extreme right and that often has Brussels as a target of his anger. “The EPP will always be the farmers' party, that must be our message,” Von der Leyen said in Bucharest, already in campaign mode.
