Things happen in Europe

Things happen in Europe that don’t happen here. For example, the spokespersons in the European Parliament of the PP, PSOE and Vox meet in a room with a handful of journalists to analyze together the issue of the day and answer all the questions.

That was what happened last Wednesday, on the sixth floor of the European Parliament in Brussels, just before the Hearing to Teresa Ribera. The tone of Dolors Montserrat (PP), Javi López (PSOE) and Jorge Buxadé (Vox) was friendly, each in their own style, and their arguments were clarifying. It was there that the journalists present, summoned for the occasion from Spain by the community parliament, confirmed that something unprecedented was going to happen, although it would probably end up being much more noise than anything.

The Hearings They are a democratic mechanism little practiced in the world. The members of the parliamentary committees involved in the portfolios of the candidates for new members of the European Council have three hours to examine the candidates, to give them approval or rejection or to ask to continue examining them. The staging is clear: the candidates down in the center looking at the stands where the parliamentary examiners sit surrounding them.

It is true that those examined do so backed by the approval of the president of the European Council – in this case Ursula von der Leyen –, with the agreement of all those involved in the formation of this institution that represents 27 countries. Candidates have only been rejected on seven occasions in all of European history and always due to manifest incompetence in those exams to occupy the position.

The exam is not easy. The MEPs have one minute to ask questions and the candidates have two minutes to answer them. The interrogations expose the concerns of all political groups on the issues that concern the commissioners. Applicants earn points by demonstrating their knowledge and good disposition with all the European sensibilities represented in this parliament.

It is an exercise of democracy that is enviable in the rest of the world, including Spain. It is unimaginable that the council of ministers would have to be examined before the parliament that represents all Spaniards before taking office, although the letter says that they have to represent and listen to those who vote for them and those who do not, although it would be a good way to focus parliamentary activity on what matters and on the need to listen and agree.

Javi López broke the ice in the meeting room, when we were all already seated, on both sides of a very long meeting table. The socialist spokesman explained that the European socialists had decided to stop the approval of the rest of Hearings to the vice-presidents of the Council, in the face of threats from the European People’s Party to overthrow Teresa Ribera in theirs before it had happened. In fact, when the delegation of invited Spanish journalists landed in the Belgian capital, shortly before, a spokesperson for the Spanish Popular Party came to tell us at the door of the restaurant where we were eating, before we even entered Parliament, that the The European PP was going to veto Ribera no matter what he said in the exam, that the national PP had convinced the European to “knock down” the only Spanish candidacy.

The socialist spokesperson, in a sober tone, explained that this had never happened, that the formation of the European Council and the complex balances that had been achieved by the list of names of the college of commissioners were in danger, while Trump was already announcing his Government. On that list there is an ultra-Italian vice president, from Giorgia Meloni’s party, Rafaelle Fito, and a Hungarian, Olivér Várhelyi, candidate for European Commissioner for Animal Health and Safety, proposed by Viktor Orban. That is to say, it has representatives from absolutely all sides as is tradition in Europe.

Dolors Montserrat confirmed that Ribera’s candidacy would be defeated. He said that bringing down Ribera would not harm Spain because the President of the Government can designate another candidate, that a different rooster would have crowed if Ribera had left the position of minister fifteen days before this exam as Arias Cañete did in her day, against whom the socialists voted; that there was a European precedent of a minister resigning in Germany for the management of floods in the Rhineland and that if Ribera had not been a good minister for Spain, she could not be a good European commissioner either.

Neither Montserrat nor López denied each other. López pointed out that Cañete was only voted against in his hearing in 2014 by the Spanish socialists and that, after another round of questions, he was approved as Commissioner for the Environment and Energy and that Ribera was the architect of the Iberian exception that so many European countries envied.

Jorge Buxadé, the Vox spokesperson, spoke last with a certain jokingness. He attacked the agreement that will support the new European commission – if it does not fall after this maneuver – because in that commission there will be no one from Patriots for Europe, his group, the third most voted in the European Chamber. The agreement is the fruit of a coalition between the European Popular Party, the liberals and the social democrats.

Buxadé sarcastically stated that this disagreement between social democrats and popular Europeans was “tunai”, that is, tonight in English said in tacky Spanish. The distribution of portfolios is a cake, he came to say, and no one will want to be left without theirs. The Council will be approved at the end and not for a long time.

Neither López nor Monserrat denied him.

It was left between the lines that Ursula von der Leyen will call Manfred Weber to order, the president of the European PP who bought this milonga from Feijoo out of animosity towards the German who took his position in 2019 – he was the natural candidate to preside over the European Commission-. It will be that or the implosion of the European People’s Party.

After the meeting they took us to Hearing that we came to listen to and we witnessed how the MEPs of the European People’s Party along with many from Patriots For Europe, the group to which VOX belongs, interrogated the candidate about DANA in Valencia, even holding her responsible for more than 200 murders.

Ribera did not lose his calm. He only answered at times. He ignored the most violent questions but thanked each and every one of them at each turn. She responded more to those who wanted to know how she plans her work as vice president of the European Commission for the Clean, Fair and Competitive Transition. He spoke about dissatisfied farmers, about excessive bureaucracy, about European relations with large multinationals, including those in the automobile sector on which many jobs depend. He acknowledged that not everything has been done well and that it is about doing it better and more fairly. Between these explanations, between this exercise of maximum democracy, questions that were brutal accusations crept in, breaking the meaning of the scheduled appearance.

The Spanish journalists present feel – I think – more national shame than anything else; disgust towards the spectacle politics that is also being imposed in Europe.

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*Fact check: The resigned minister that Dolors Montserrat told us about, Anne Spiegel, was Federal Family Minister in 2022 when she resigned and she did so after it became public that she went on vacation in the middle of managing a major flood when she was a counselor environment in the Rhineland. That is to say, she was like Mazón’s advisor that Mazón continues without ceasing.

*Breaking news: Shortly before I deliver this article it is announced that Santiago Abascal has been elected new president of the Patriots for Europe, the third group of the European Parliament where, in addition to VOX, the parties of Marine Le Pen and Viktor Orbán are . That is to say, Spanish politics continues to take center stage in European politics, although taking into account Santiago Abascal’s reputation for being lazy and the bad relationship he has with Feijoo, the agreements between the European PP and the Patriots for Europe seem further away from the start. than ever.