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July 18, 2024 - 3:30pm
European Parliament elections last month confirmed a Right-wing shift in public sentiment, but the bloc’s overall direction will remain fundamentally unchanged. This was assured by Ursula von der Leyen’s re-election as European Commission President this afternoon, with support from the European Greens clinching the result and giving her a total of 401 votes out of 720 MEPs.
The Greens’ decision to back a Commission presidential candidate for the first time ever was a political vindication of von der Leyen’s emphasis on environmental policy during her first term. She paid for their support with a pledge to further expand the EU’s Green Deal, setting a new 90% emissions reduction target for 2040. Yet her suggestion, during a speech addressed to MEPs earlier today, that her focus will now shift towards “reconciling climate protection and a prosperous economy”, appears a tacit acknowledgement of the dangers posed by the Green Deal to the European economy.
That the Commission President chose to look for the support she needed from the Greens, rather than from the European Conservatives & Reformists group dominated by Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy, underlines the shared centrist and Left-wing interests which led to her reappointment. For MEPs terrified by the rise of the “far-Right”, sticking with von der Leyen ensures that the rising tide of conservatism is kept at bay within the European Commission, at least for another five years. As Terry Reintke, Greens Co-Chair, put it: “keeping the far-Right out was a red line for us, and this red line has been clearly met.”
Von der Leyen used her speech today to emphasise her opposition to the anti-establishment forces gaining ground in EU politics. Indeed, she has become emblematic of much of the populist Right’s distrust of the EU — her lack of transparency over Covid vaccine procurement, condemned by the General Court of the EU on Wednesday, has been a long-running sore for those unhappy with the Commission’s lack of accountability. She drew loud cheers for condemning Viktor Orbán’s recent diplomatic offensive with Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky, calling his trip to the Kremlin an “appeasement mission” and repeating her pledge that the EU will stand with Ukraine for “as long as it takes”.
Like much in von der Leyen’ manifesto, pledges to beef up European defence capabilities while pushing for a bigger role in determining foreign policy confirm the Commission’s intention to keep the EU on its current trajectory. That is, expanding the reach and power of EU institutions, doubling down on climate initiatives, and maintaining the bloc’s current stance in relation to Russia and China.
By promising more of the same, von der Leyen is pandering to the wishes of the European Left, rather than those of the surging populist Right. The marriage of convenience of the centre and Left, for the sole purpose of keeping the Right at bay, recalls tactics which successfully, if only temporarily, defeated the National Rally in France earlier this month. These tactics are proving effective for now in thwarting an EU-wide shift in public opinion to the Right. Whether they last is another matter.
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SubscribeThe EU is basically a conglomeration of failed states. I’m not even sure it can be rescued by populist movements. In Barcelona, anti-tourist protests are all the rage now. This is a city basically built on tourism. They don’t build anything in Europe and now they want to get rid of the only industry left. Good luck with that.
The largest industry in Europe and the UK now is immigration. Immigration helps us to convert the social goods of the working poor – schools, health services, environmental amenities – into property wealth for us, the parasitic middle class. Which is fine until the ‘deplorables’ figure out what we’re up to. Fortunately, we control the media and the education system – so it’s easy to bamboozle them into thinking it’s all someone else’s fault.
Yep, it’s still working though.. I’ve every reason to believe the idiot class will never tumble to the truth.. too easily manipulated!
Well said.
Surely all Western states are failures (apart from the smart little ones like Denmark, Ireland etc). Name a major Western state that’s thriving.. The UK, Germany, France, Italy, the US.. apart from massaged figures and twisted statistics all are in decline with very unhappy, often impoverished citizens, some ready for civil war almost!
By contrast, Russia and China are thriving and India too is doing ok..
Btw tourism accounts for 12% of Catalunya’s GDP and 14% of its workforce.. and it is not proposing to ban all tourists.. only yobos who come from ..I’d better not say!
“These tactics are proving effective for now in thwarting an EU-wide shift in public opinion to the Right.”
And that’s why the (populist) Right will keep getting stronger. Why is it so hard to understand that these factions are getting stronger because voters feel ignored? Somehow I wouldn’t limit the distrust of the EU to the populist right, I think it’s more widespread than that – it’s just that the “populist right” benefit from it in the absence of any politics from the left beyond “red lines” and “keeping out the far right”. Pigeons learn faster.
And I think – gasp, controversial – Orban was right (if very provocative) in going on his missions to Moscow and Kiev. This kindergarten-level aggro of boycotting Hungary’s council presidency meetings makes me despise the political establishment even more. It shows a dangerous kind of groupthink that might well blow up in Europe’s face if the US does go for isolationism on security and defence if/when Trump becomes president again. Then, Europeans might be happy about all lines of communication that exist, no matter about the procedure by which they were established.
Von der Leyen could have just said clearly Orban wasn’t doing that in his capacity as the council president and left it at that, no drama. Instead, the old EU humiliation tactics come to the fore.
And this is the president of the Commission for the next 5 years. You’ll forgive me for my lack of enthusiasm.
Whether or not you like the EU (I don’t), few organisations would be kindly disposed to a member which actively consorts with its enemy (as Orban is doing with Putin). If the facility exists to do so, Hungary should be kicked out. At the very least, funds which otherwise would be paid to it should be cut off. If the Hungarians think Putin is so great, they can move into his orbit, and turn their backs on Western Europe. Hungary should be kicked out of NATO too.
So how do you get a ceasefire if you don’t “consort” with the enemy? ..or are you waiting for Russia to surrender?? For sure, send Boris back and let him demand a surrender from Putin.. I’m sure that’ll work!
OMG my thumbs up actually reduced (!) your score from 26:0 in favour to 1:0 in favour?? Looks like the censors are busy here.
Von der Lying belongs not with the Greens, she belongs in jail as a genocide aider and abetter!
By the way, so do Sunak and Starmer..
If one looks at the state of the EU since Von Der Leyen first became president of the Commission, what exactly has been acheived that warrants another term?
Apart from a botched attempt at punishing the UK for the temerity of its electorate in making the “wrong” decision (instead of respecting the democratic process); apart from botching its response to Covid; apart from allowing mass immigration which is probably the main reason for the rightward turn in recent years; apart from all that and more – what has been its successes?
What are the measures by which ‘success’ could be defined? What’s Von Der Leyen’s vision, beyond an ability to look down her nose and see no further?
She’s the symbol of all that’s wrong with the EU, an unelected champion of elites who’s unlikely ever to have held a serious conversation with anyone below a median income level. Given the last five years, how much further into the mire can she take the EU over the next five?
Quite a lot further! The EU is an irrelevance but hasn’t realised it…and probably never will.
It will go on issuing rules and regulations which have no bearing on reality until it finally collapses through inertia and failure to relate to the power politics of the current situation.
Brexit should have been a wake up call, because it lost a major donor, but instead it tried to throw its weight around when it only has some in respect of true believers…but no-one else.
You fail to recognise the MAJOR achievement of keeping its 27 members from going to war with each other.. I despise VdL but the EU has achieved its initial, major goal.. and that is a magnificent achievement
Yeah, the rest is not great but we in Ireland, (for many years a net donor btw!) benefited very much from it, not least by getting us out from. under a heavy economic yoke imposed on us by our previous bloc!±
Wow, my positive vote also stripped all other positive votes you had.. that’s the 2nd time I’ve managed to do that.. looks like one area of success for Von the Lying is propaganda and censorship, even here on Unherd? Basically, all her ‘achievements’ can be summed up as doing nothing and that, given the threat from the right can be seen as a success perhaps!
The Greens of 2024 are a grotesque travesty of what they once were. How can the party of Petra Kelly, of peace and neutrality, of grassroots resistance, become the neoliberal, pro-war disgrace they are today? Their amoral opportunism even puts the social democrats in the shade. Shame on them.
If that is the way the EU is going, then I am glad Britain is out. Still, Britain has its own Green Left extremist in Ed Miliband.
So? You’re just as badly off then?
What took me awhile to understand is that when the French voted to leave the EU Macron said “Nah!” & that was it. He literally ignored the voice of the people!
He did right.. people are stupid and will vote against the own interest once extreme right flood the country with lies.. look at the UK!
The tactic of isolating, broadly-speaking, anti-federalist/anti-EU establishment forces by categorising them as “far right” will succeed as long as the Establishment is successful at categorising its opponents as far right. Some might be or might have been in the past, which is why, if Le Pen loses in 2027, she and all her family, relatives and connections should leave the stage. The anti-Establishment/anti-federalist forces have to break the connection in the public mind between their parties and the far right. If they fail to do so they will continue to lose elections.