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.


William Nattrass is a British journalist based in Prague and news editor of Expats.cz