The PP of Alberto Núñez Feijóo has put Teresa Ribera in the target on the verge of being examined this Tuesday in the European Parliament as future vice president of Competition and Fair and Clean Transition. The Spanish delegation already opposed her candidacy in the first step of the process, distancing itself from its group at the European level, and now raised its tone against the socialist leader, whom it accuses of inaction in the management of DANA at the same time that Génova tries to protect the Valencian president, Carlos Mazón, in the face of doubts about negligence in the hours before the catastrophe.
“Our colleagues in the European Union know what we think and so do all Spaniards. “We have said a long time ago that we considered that Mrs. Ribera was not the best candidate and was not the competent person to carry out this high responsibility,” said the PP spokesperson, Borja Sémper, in a press conference in which he also pointed to the management during the DANA in which the command has fallen to the Generalitat Valenciana: “The episodes of these last 15 days only reinforce the rejection of his profile and his way of acting.”
“I have the feeling that the third vice president is more concerned with being a European commissioner and obtaining the necessary support to achieve it than with meeting her responsibilities,” the PP parliamentary spokesperson, Miguel Tellado, attacked on Saturday: “Much has been said about the agenda of the president of the Generalitat, when the person sitting in the Cecopi was the autonomous government and the Government of Spain was very far away: Sánchez in India, Teresa Ribera in Brussels and Paris, and the Secretary of State for the Environment in Colombia”.
Feijóo’s PP now uses the management of DANA as an argument to oppose Ribera, but it has already criticized the appointment and even voted against its suitability in the step of the declaration of interests that Ribera passed without any problem with the approval of the European PP.
But the Spanish delegation maneuvers to strike a blow at Pedro Sánchez’s waterline. “The EPP knows our position,” say management sources. The great unknown is to what extent the rejection of Feijóo’s people can permeate the group led by Manfred Weber, since after all, Ribera is the name that the Government of Spain puts on the table of Ursula von der Leyen, which is the one who is responsible for appointing the commissioners.
It was Von der Leyen who decided to give Ribera the Competition portfolio and place her in a vice presidency, although the distribution of power led to that puzzle given that Spain is the largest socialist country (behind Germany, which does not appoint a commissioner because it has the presidency, even if it is from the EPP).
The Government, meanwhile, strictly carries out its political strategy of not entering into a public clash with the PP or the Generalitat of Valencia. Not even the president has entered this Monday into the rag of the popular campaign against Teresa Ribera, of which he has made a fiery defense. “The world, Europe and Spain need more Teresas Riberas and fewer deniers,” he responded to the press’ question about the Popular Party’s maneuvers in Brussels.
He has also been laconic in his response about whether he thought that the management of his third vice president had risen to the occasion in the DANA tragedy. “Yes,” he said to leave his opinion in the air regarding the role played by Carlos Mazón. “There will be time for analyzes and for demanding responsibilities, but now we are where we are,” he concluded during his appearance after the Council of Ministers approved a second aid package.
A problem for the European PP
Rejecting Ribera also entails risks for the EPP itself, which would have to justify knocking down a candidate – for the moment all have passed except for the Hungarian, who has been asked to answer questions in writing. In addition, Spain would have to designate another person and the process may be delayed beyond December 1. Von der Leyen’s intention is to start working “as soon as possible” due to the “complicated international situation” and the “large number of pending issues in Europe,” according to the spokesperson, Eric Mamer.
This Tuesday, Ribera needs the support of two-thirds of the coordinators of the parliamentary commissions that are examining her. In practical terms, this means having the ‘yes’ of the PPE, socialists, liberals, greens and the left. The position of the EPP depends fundamentally on what happens with other candidates, especially Giorgia Meloni’s candidate, Raffaele Fitto, whom they have welcomed as if he were their own.
Fitto is examined with Ribera and what they take for granted in the EPP is that if he does not get the two-thirds he needs and, therefore, has to go to a second hearing, they will drag Ribera and the French candidate, Stéphane Sejourné, to the same situation. And the problem that socialists and liberals have is that they oppose elevating a far-right candidate to the vice presidency.
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