The PP’s war of attrition against Ribera and the vice presidency for the extreme right threaten the ‘Von der Leyen majority’

In the European Parliament there are two open wars with an unpredictable outcome. Neither the soldiers nor many of the generals of the groups involved even know how they are going to end. On the one hand, the European People’s Party, aligned with that of Alberto Núñez Feijóo, in a battle of attrition against the Spanish candidate, Teresa Ribera, whom Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the conservative family, placed in the juicy portfolio of Competition and Fair and Clean Transition. On the other hand, the socialists maintain their ‘no’ to supporting the candidate of the far-right Giorgia Meloni, Raffaele Fitto, for another vice presidency, and consider that his nomination for the leadership of the new European Commission means violating the pact of the EPP, S&D and liberals (Renew) that confirmed the second term of the German.

All stages are open after an intense day of high tension in which the vice presidential candidates were examined and the threat of everything blowing up is on the table. In fact, Von der Leyen has been forced to put things in order and will meet with the spokespersons of the groups that support her mandate at 1 p.m.

Feijóo’s PP deployed all its artillery on Tuesday and even sent a battalion to Brussels for the examination of the socialist Teresa Ribera, which became the most tense hearing of the 26 that have been held in the last two weeks. In the European Parliament they are accustomed to the Spanish politicization of debates, but the interrogation of Ribera went beyond the limits. The popular Spaniards sowed doubts about the Spanish candidate and even suggested that she may end up being charged for the management of DANA in which more than 200 people have died.

The Spanish PP, celebrating

The popular Spaniards celebrated their victory that day in a festive atmosphere: getting Teresa Ribera’s evaluation delayed. “I was going to be anointed today and that’s not going to be the case,” said sources from the Spanish PP. That Feijóo managed to postpone that decision is a half-truth. The previous day, the three spokespersons for the ‘Von der Leyen majority’ agreed that the evaluations of the vice presidents – and the Hungarian far-right commissioner, who is the only one who has not obtained approval – would be carried out en bloc. In this way, the candidates being examined at the end of the day were avoided being taken ‘hostage’ (under an agreement between the EPP and the far-right forces).

The socialists consider that the EPP betrayed them the following morning, when the EPP said that this delay would be until next week and attributed it to the need for Ribera to be held accountable first in Congress (something he will do at his own request on the 20th of December). November). “We hope that Teresa Ribera answers all open questions about her responsibilities as a minister before the Spanish Parliament before seeking new responsibilities in Europe. We cannot afford to burden the new commission with legal and political responsibilities arising from the previous executive position of any new commissioner,” declared the EPP leader, Manfred Weber, after the interrogation of Ribera, closely following the Genoa argument.

This position caused astonishment in the socialist group, which still considers that the agreement reached on Monday night was limited to carrying out all the evaluations at the same time, not to delay them until next week. And the anger they have in the group led by Iratxe García is enormous. And the message they send is clear: without Ribera and with Fitto as vice president they will not vote in favor of the entire College of Commissioners in the plenary session scheduled for the last week of November.

Failure of the PP in the international press

The EPP also suggested during Ribera’s examination that it did not find her “suitable” for the vice presidency of Competition and Fair and Clean Transition. Will the popular ones manage to overthrow the key piece for the socialists? That question is not answered in Feijóo’s PP either, which has made it clear, of course, that this is its ultimate objective.

For the moment, they were content with the delay in the nomination and with the reading that would be made in the international press of their move. “Tomorrow all the newspapers in Europe will talk about the blocking of five vice presidents by Ribera. All of Europe will know about the ‘Ribera case,'” said sources in Feijóo’s orbit.

However, the matter has gone largely unnoticed in the press of the European bubble, which attributes the tension in Ribera’s interrogation to national political issues. Politico, for example, speaks of a “shit show” in which MEPs from the Spanish European People’s Party “have tried to blame Ribera for the disaster in an attempt to divert attention from the center-right regional president Carlos Mazón, who is under pressure to resign for his failed handling of the crisis.” “Under Spanish law, regional authorities are responsible for emergency management, but center-right MEPs joined members of the far-right group Patriotas [el grupo del que forma parte Vox] to try to attribute responsibility for the tragedy to Ribera. “His repeated mentions of the matter exasperated legislators from other countries who were eager to discuss issues relevant to the commissioner-designate’s portfolio,” the report states.

But Feijóo’s PP strategy is, from his perspective, a ‘win-win’. If they manage to suspend Ribera it will be a success because it is what they intended from the first moment. However, it would mean dealing a blow to the ‘Von der Leyen majority’ and the German would have a difficult time moving forward with its College of Commissioners – and if it were to achieve this based on the position of the liberals, it would be with votes from the extreme right. In the event that blood does not reach the river and that Von der Leyen manages to redirect the situation, the PP has already managed to sow doubts about Ribera’s management in an attempt to weaken it.