Maltese conservative Roberta Metsola was re-elected on Tuesday as president of the European Parliament, which was renewed in June and where the strengthened far right is coveting positions despite its divisions and a claimed “sanitary cordon”.
This plenary session in Strasbourg, which began a new five-year legislature with Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy”, will be marked on Thursday by a vote to reappoint Ursula von der Leyen as president of the European Commission.
Elected at the beginning of June, the 720 MEPs, 39% of whom are women, have already granted by an overwhelming majority (562 votes) a second two-and-a-half-year mandate to Roberta Metsola, 45, as president of the EU’s only elected institution.
Coming from the EPP (right), the leading political force in Parliament, and the third woman to hold this position after the French women Simone Veil and Nicole Fontaine, Roberta Metsola had distinguished herself in particular by her very active support for Ukraine.
“We need a strong Parliament in a strong union […] maintain the pressure to guarantee our right of initiative [face à la Commission]improve our powers of control and investigation,” she insisted.
The designation on Tuesday, via complex multi-round ballots, of the 14 vice-presidents of Parliament – responsible for leading sessions by orchestrating votes and speeches – will be particularly scrutinized because of the demands of the two large far-right groups.
Even though the centrist coalition EPP (right, 188 seats), Renew (liberals, 77) and S&D (social democrats, 136) remains in the majority, the radical and nationalist right has made significant progress and wants to have more influence.
Leggeri, one of the vice-presidents?
ECR, the far-right European Conservatives and Reformists group (78 MEPs) associated with the head of the Italian government Giorgia Meloni, had a vice-president since 2022: it now demands two, despite resistance from the left.
Above all, a new formation, Patriots for Europe, has established itself as the third force with 84 MEPs, many of whom are reluctant to support Ukraine. They come notably from Vox (Spain), Viktor Orban’s Fidesz and the National Rally (France), with Jordan Bardella at their head.
According to the usual distribution key, two vice-presidencies are theirs.
An absolute red line for the groups of the centrist majority, who intend to agree on alternative candidates. “We do not want to see Putin’s friends representing the institution,” underlines Pedro Lopez de Pablo, spokesman for the EPP.
The Patriot MEPs, who could also be excluded from the presidencies of parliamentary committees next week, denounce an “anti-democratic” cordon sanitaire.
“It is important to demonstrate our willingness to play our full part in parliamentary work,” retorts French RN elected official Fabrice Leggeri, former director of Frontex, the EU agency responsible for borders, and candidate for the position.
“The parliamentarians represented all have a mandate from the voters: it is normal to confront political ideas, Parliament is precisely the place to do it in a democratic way,” he declared to AFP as he left the chamber.
Among the Patriots, some profiles arouse controversy, including that of the Italian general Roberto Vannacci, from Matteo Salvini’s League and author of a book full of homophobic, misogynistic and anti-migrant statements.
On the contrary, the elected representatives of ECR themselves, willingly Atlanticists and in favour of military support for Ukraine – unlike the Patriots – could be involved in the distribution of posts.
“Mme Meloni was not in the cordon sanitaire, unlike the ID group from which the Patriots come: what is problematic is that they are pro-Putin, that is the red line,” observes Pascale Joannin, from the Schuman Foundation.
Ecologists courted
Ursula von der Leyen, who hopes to obtain the green light from MPs for a second term on Thursday, has not ruled out collaborating with certain ECR parties.
If the EPP-socialist-liberal coalition obtains the absolute majority of 361 MEPs it needs on Thursday to be re-elected, the German leader must also guard against the significant defections expected during a secret ballot with a very close outcome.
Enough to push her to seek the support of environmentalists (53 seats), who are demanding commitments on the Green Deal.
Even to count on elected representatives from ECR. However, liberals, socialists and Greens are fiercely opposed to any recourse to ECR to strengthen the head of the European executive.
“It is crucial to build a stable majority with pro-democracy, pro-EU parties,” says Green co-leader Terry Reintke.