The socialists are open to supporting Giorgia Meloni’s candidate for the vice presidency of the European Commission, Raffaele Fitto, in exchange for unblocking the appointment of Teresa Ribera, which the European People’s Party had blocked due to the refusal of socialists and liberals to support the extreme right to the leadership of the community government. “The EU cannot plunge into instability with short-sighted crossed vetoes. To protect Europe, out of responsibility, a functioning Commission is essential, which does not depend on the maneuvers of Trump and the extreme right,” government sources point out.
The great fight against the European PP had been led by the Spanish socialist, Iratxe García, as head of the group of socialists and democrats in the European Parliament. Last week the S&D leadership reiterated that Ribera and Fitto could not be placed on the same level since the former is a candidate from the coalition that operates in the EU – popular, socialists and liberals – while the Italian belongs to the political family of the Reformists and Conservatives (ECR), which is outside that ‘Von der Leyen majority’. In fact, neither Meloni nor the Fratelli d’Italia supported the German in her re-election, but the EPP keeps its hand extended to them.
“The decision that must be made is not ‘yes Ribera or yes Fitto’: the strategic decision is to reach a consensus that protects Europe in a particularly dangerous international scenario,” they now point out from the Government of Pedro Sánchez. “What is relevant is what the EU does in the face of a new Trump administration that threatens tariffs on EU products, a trade war with China, that challenges the multilateral order and the UN, which maintains a provocative attitude, with an openly Secretary of State for Energy denialist and coming from oil, and the escalation of hostilities in Ukraine,” these sources add.
The conclusion is that the socialists prioritize the institutional responsibility of keeping the European Commission up and running in exchange for lifting their veto on Fitto. And, in the process, they guarantee support for Ribera who, in their opinion, should never have been in question.
The great obstacle in the election process of the new European Commission was always the Italian Fitto after socialists and liberals showed their categorical refusal to make him vice president under the argument that the Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) are not part of the European coalition that supports Ursula von der Leyen. However, the European PP led by the German Manfred Weber made it a condition that these two groups endorse Meloni’s candidate and used Ribera’s candidacy as a bargaining chip.
It was Alberto Núñez Feijóo who first took the Socialists’ cession for granted. “Now the PSOE’s offer in Europe is to reach an agreement with what they call the European extreme right,” said the leader of the PP in a speech. From Genoa they had been pointing in that direction since early in the morning after scoring the goal last week of having delayed the entire process of electing the vice presidents of the community government by one week.
Weber’s pulse
For the moment, the evaluations of the six vice presidents and the Hungarian commissioner, Oliver Varhely, remain suspended until there is an agreement between the three main political families. Feijóo’s PP maneuvered in Brussels to delay the process and ensure that Ribera was not elected last week, as planned. And with that move, all evaluations were delayed. What the European PP said, assuming to a certain extent the Genoa story, is that Ribera should be held accountable before Congress. His appearance is scheduled for Wednesday the 20th.
From there the tension has been maximum and the ‘Von der Leyen majority’ is threatened. Of course, trust between the popular, socialists and liberals is completely broken even if there is finally an agreement that allows the new European Commission to get underway.
Weber has challenged the social democrats and, incidentally, Von der Leyen herself, from her political family, to whom he has sent the message that the European Parliament has power over its mandate in which the EPP has a majority with the far-right forces against whom the cordon sanitaire has been lifted, despite the rejection of leaders of the traditional right, including Von der Leyen. However, the president does not put Meloni in that bag, with whom she has had the gesture of making her candidate vice president, despite the fact that neither in the European Council nor later in the European Chamber did the Fratelli d’Italia support her candidacy.
Feijóo does not know if his European colleagues will support Ribera
What they maintain in Genoa is that the Social Democrats have given in and will support Fitto in exchange for their European colleagues giving approval to Ribera. “The extreme right is not so ultra if they shield Ribera,” criticizes Feijóo’s PP, which thus opens the door for the vice president to obtain approval from the European Parliament against her criteria. In fact, the Spanish Popular Party still trusts that the parliamentary commissions responsible for examining Ribera will suspend his nomination as it is held behind closed doors and the vote is secret.
Faced with the rejection of the Spanish PP, which wants Sánchez to nominate another person for the future community executive, the popular Europeans lowered their demands on Ribera by conditioning his evaluation on him going to Congress, something that will happen on Wednesday, and on his committing to resign if she is prosecuted – some sources talk about if she is convicted – for the management of DANA. The socialist adheres to the code of conduct of the European Commission, which only contemplates the demand for resignation if the president requests it.
There is still room for a hypothetical agreement to allow the entire European Commission to vote next week in Strasbourg. As a prerequisite, the vice presidents must first be evaluated, who pass the procedure (by a two-thirds majority of the coordinators of the corresponding parliamentary committees or by a simple majority of all the MEPs that make up the committee if they do not pass the first attempt) and Finally, the entire community government is validated in the plenary session of the European Parliament.
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