The French centre-right Les Républicains declared they will not back European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s quest for a second term in the top job in Brussels.
Ursula von der Leyen’s performance in her first term as Commission chief was “not up to par” and therefore the Les Républicains party will not support her candidacy for a second stint as leader, French MEP and the leader of the party in the EU Parliament, François-Xavier Bellamy declared on Tuesday.
“We will not support her in the election that comes with the Republicans, because we consider that the results are not up to what Europe expects today,” Bellamy said in comments reported by Le Figaro.
The declaration from the centrist French party comes just one day after von der Leyen announced her intentions to seek a second term as Commission president. It represents the first party within her European People’s Party (EPP) parliamentary group to come out against the German politician’s nomination openly.
The principal objection to von der Leyen from the Républicains has been her green agenda push, which has not only included plans to reach ‘Net Zero’ carbon emissions by 2050, but also has seen a swath of new environmental regulations imposed upon European farmers, who have already faced difficulties over inflation, the energy crisis, and the decision by Brussels to allow tariff-free access to its market to Ukrainian agriculture produced with much cheaper labour than within the EU.
Farmers across the bloc are seeking to make the European Parliament elections a referendum on the green agenda and have staged large-scale tractor protests to shut down major motorways and capital cities throughout Europe, including weeks of disruptions in France. Like the populist National Rally party, the Républicains have thrown their support behind the farmer uprising, while castigating Brussels tying the policies to globalist French President Emmanuel Macron.
While von der Leyen threw her hat in the ring on Monday, she will have to wait until March for the European People’s Party to officially put her forward as its candidate. Despite the announcement from the Républicains, with the support of Germany’s much larger neo-liberal Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party of her former boss ex-German Chancellor Angela Merkel, von der Leyen is still likely to receive the backing of the EPP.
The EPP is expected to remain the largest party in the Parliament, and therefore, according to convention, will likely be given the opportunity to put forward its choice for commission chief before the parliament.
However, it is not a foregone conclusion that the EU chief will be able to secure enough support from the European Parliament as a whole for another term, given the expected rise of Eurosceptic populist parties in the June elections. Indeed, during her selection in 2019, von der Leyen just barely achieved the absolute majority needed to ascend to the post under more favourable circumstances.
“You don’t make yourself president of the Commission. She’s going to have to work up a sweat,” a European diplomat told the Le Monde newspaper on Monday.
Meanwhile, German broadcaster NTV suggests that she has already formed an alliance with CDU leader Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron, who has been a close ally since backing her candidacy in 2019.
The move, the broadcaster noted, would likely serve to undermine the traffic-light coalition government of Social Democrat Chancellor Olaf Scholz and place Merz as the frontrunner to take power in Berlin in the German elections in 2025.
Meanwhile, despite Macron being projected to suffer an embarrassing defeat to populists from his own country in the European Parliament elections, the weakening of Scholz and the appearance of having “his candidate” succeeding in securing a second term would help to cement his role as the most powerful national leader within the bloc for the remainder of his final term in office.
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