Sánchez at the G20 meeting seeks to unblock Ribera’s appointment to the Commission

The Government admits that The PP order puts Ribera’s appointment at risk and therefore of all the European commissioners, although the majority opinion is that it is a pressure movement that will not reach the ultimate consequences.

However, this same Monday, sources from the national leadership of the PP indicated that the party leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, is willing to vote against the entire Von der Leyen government if he insists on appointing Ribera.

In this sense, they point to the prior responsibility of their Ministry for not undertaking the necessary works and investments before DANA and they also blame her for being “disappeared” after the flood, preparing her examination before the European Parliament.

Sánchez and Von der Leyen coincide in Brazil

In Rio de Janeiro, the President of the Government coincides with Von der Leyen on the occasion of the G20, although it is not clear to what extent they have been able to address the issue in depth, given that their respective teams They have avoided detailing whether their agendas include a bilateral meeting that allows for a leisurely discussion about key interests.

Community sources indicate that Sánchez and Von der Leyen agreed in the room and they exchanged protocol greetings at the beginning of the day and avoided going into more details, because, they argue, the current Commission has nothing to say about the “transition process” to the new Executive, a process that corresponds to the European Parliament to complete.

All this occurs while the contacts in Brussels have taken place throughout the weekend to try to reduce the tension that the contacts reached at the end of last week, when The European People’s Party (EPP) even made it necessary to evaluate Ribera until he appeared before the Congress of Deputies (which will happen this Wednesday) and promised to resign if his management of DANA were prosecuted; while the Socialists and Democrats (SD) demanded that the Italian candidate, the far-right Raffaele Fitto, be relegated from vice president to simple commissioner.

“There have been contacts, there will continue to be contacts and it is expected to maintain the voting schedule on November 27 in Strasbourg,” indicate EPP sources, referring to the fact that the objective continues to be to achieve a solution that allows the evaluations to be concluded by the competent parliamentary committees. of each position in the air in time for the entire College of Commissioners to be submitted to the vote of the Plenary on Wednesday of next week.

The Government urges to reach an agreement

Government sources, for their part, warn that the European Union “cannot afford a myopic view in the current delicate geopolitical context and demand a “strategic” decision that allows for a “consensus that protects Europe in a particularly dangerous international scenario.”

The same government sources maintain that It’s not about “if it’s Ribera or Fitto” but to overcome the situation of blockade, but from the EPP they make it clear that they do see a relationship between both cases, despite the fact that Fitto is not a ‘popular’ candidate, but of the European Conservatives and Reformists led in the European Parliament by Giorgia’s party Meloni and who, until now, have supported the approval of the socialist and liberal commissioners.

“Not approving Fitto means blocking Ribera,” warned, for his part, the vice president of the Italian Government and Foreign Minister, Antonio Tajani, who has insisted on the urgency for the new Commission to be up and running on December 1.

In statements to the press in Brussels, the head of Italian diplomacy warned PPE and SD that It would be a “very serious mistake” to continue blocking Von der Leyen’s new team for “political whims.”