Negotiations for the center coalition necessary to reinstate Ursula von der Leyen

Ursula von der Leyen has a good chance of getting the 361 votes needed in the European Parliament, to renew her mandate as president of the European Commission, if the European People's Party will not conclude any agreement, any alliance with the far-right parties that entered in the legislative forum of the EU, not even with the political formation whose leader is Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and which von der Leyen said shares certain community principles and objectives, the general secretaries of the main political groups of the center affirmed yesterday, within a debate organized by Politico.eu.

Thanasis Bakolas, general secretary of the EPP, said: "People voted for the future, worried about income levels, economic growth, inflation, security, increased migration. European citizens sent us two very clear messages during the European Parliament elections. The first is that they want the EPP to lead the European Union and the second is that they want us to form a center coalition and we will negotiate on that. In order to obtain the 361 votes necessary to elect Mrs. von der Leyen as President of the European Commission, we will call on our traditional friends, with whom we have common goals and with whom we have worked for so many years in the European Parliament and in the other institutions in Brussels. Then we will look at reasonable, rational MPs who want the good of the Union. It will not be a process with one political direction, but political leaders must ensure that the common direction is clear, because we want greater cohesion on decisions at European level. It is reasonable for our partners to have certain clear expectations, because the parties that will make up the center majority in the European Parliament must know how we will proceed and how we will manage the European institutions".

He specified that, through the 191 MEPs won in Sunday's elections, the EPP is the first political group in the European Parliament and is therefore entitled to occupy the presidency of the European Commission, but he showed that the popular Europeans want to reach a consensus with all partners in the future European center majority, to avoid any further political discussions and to provide European citizens with policies that they can understand, with which they can agree including the financial impact.

The coalition partners of the last ten years of those in the EPP, the European Social Democrats claim that they can vote for the renewal of Ursula von der Leyen's mandate on the condition that she refuses any collaboration or cooperation with far-right parties, including the party led by the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

Giacomo Filibeck, Secretary General of the European Socialist Party (PES), formerly the S&D Alliance, said: "The message received from European citizens is clear: if we want to win, we must stand up to the far-right parties and prevent them from putting hands on the European Unionp. Together with the EPP, we must face the challenges before us, because we are two big parties that have the same democratic foundations, even if we have different ideologies. (...) We exclude any possibility of being at the negotiating table with Giorgia Meloni's party. We do not negotiate the destiny, the future of Europe with the extreme right. (...) We do not tolerate political violence. If we do not stick with the EPP to our common democratic bases, there is no point in negotiating. We will not give a blank check to Mrs. von der Leyen, but we have to see who we sit down with at the negotiating table and what program we have in common for the next five years."

The representative of the socialists and democrats mentioned that he does not rule out that the political group of the European Greens is also a part of the PPE-PES-Renew coalition, because in his opinion the Green Deal must continue with a modified strategy that supports European industry.

For her part, Benedetta De Marte, secretary general of the European Greens, said that it is necessary to create a "sanitary cordon so that the extreme right does not come to power in the European Union".

Benedetta De Marte stated: "We must keep the central majority in the European Parliament strong. We each have a national agenda, but we must not allow the far right to gain power. We knew that we would not repeat the success of 2019, because there were signals for more than a year that that success was exceptional. The 2024 elections show that we have lost the consistency of our body, especially after the elections in Germany and France. The Greens in Germany took 15%, a disappointing result, but it is important that they still retain an important percentage of society. We recorded unexpected, small results, even in the Netherlands and Austria, but we also recorded new places in countries where we did not exist before. We are a partner that can be built with, even if we are in opposition and there are countless examples in recent years where we have supported the projects of the majority in the European Parliament, but we will remain a demanding partner. As for entering EU governance, we don't want to be there just to occupy some positions, but we want collaboration based on clear principles. Our group leader (ed. - Theresa Reintke) said that we will analyze pro-democratic and pro-European what is happening, to make sure that the majority respects the bases on which we have collaborated in the past. We are open to collaboration to achieve a comfortable majority in the European Parliament in the coming days".

And the general secretary of the Alliance of European Liberals and Democrats (ALDE), Didrik de Schaetzen, mentioned that the political group will not collaborate with the extreme right in the European Parliament.

Didrik de Schaetzen said: "We have a strong majority with the EPP and the PES and we could also welcome the fourth political group in this coalition. We want reforms and not red lines that we cannot cross. However, I state that we will not work with the extreme right at the European level".

He also said that the negotiations in the coming days at the European level for the conclusion of the new political majority in the European Parliament should not be influenced by the internal elections called in France by President Emmanuel Macron after the far-right party led by Marine Le Pen obtained over 30% in last Sunday's European elections.

As part of the debate, Politico also ran a poll on the majority that should lead the European Parliament. 67% of respondents said they wanted a majority made up of EPP, S&D (PES) and Renew (ALDE) and 19% said they wanted an EPP-S&D-Renew-European Greens alliance. Only 9% want the conservatives (ECR) to enter the coalition in addition to the three big parties, while 5% want a right-wing PPE-Renew-ECR coalition.

According to the information published on the website of the European Parliament, following the results of the European elections from June 6-9, the EPP would have 191 seats in the upcoming legislature, S&D will have 135 seats, and Renew Europe 83 seats. ECR is credited with 71 seats, Identity and Democracy - 57 seats, Green Groups - 53 seats, European Left - 35 seats. Unaffiliated deputies will occupy 45 seats, and 50 seats will be occupied by parties unaffiliated to any political group.

Regarding the 33 MEPs from Romania, 21 seats would go to PSD-PNL, 6 seats to AUR, 4 seats to Alianţa Dreapta Unită (USR-FD-PMP) and 2 seats to UDMR.