French right opposes von der Leyen’s re-run for EU Commission

9 months ago 64

France’s conservative party Les Républicains (LR, EPP) will not support Ursula von der Leyen’s bid to get a second term as European Commission president, François Xavier-Bellamy, head of the LR list for the EU elections, told France Inter radio on Tuesday (20 February).

Following the European elections in June, the European Commission, as well as the other EU institutions, will be headed by a new president.

The current Commission chief, German Ursula von der Leyen, announced in Berlin on Monday that she would run for a second term in office after her mandate, which began in 2019, comes to an end in June.

She is due to be nominated in March as the candidate for the conservative European People’s Party (EPP), to which French LR belongs.

When it comes to her approval by the new European Parliament, von der Leyen will have to do without the support of the French LR MEPs elected in June. “We did not support her in 2019. We will not support her in the coming election,” said Xavier-Bellamy.

“We consider that her record does not measure up to what Europe expects today”, he continued, stressing that she was French President Emmanuel Macron’s “candidate”.

According to Bellamy, the EU has been dominated since 2019 by a majority that ranged from “the far left” to “Macronist MEPs” who have served an agenda of “constraints, complexity and control”, particularly on agricultural issues.

He gave the example of the law on nature restoration, a text that had been strongly opposed by EPP MEPs. Although an agreement was reached in November, the final text was largely watered down compared to its initial version.

This text was “emblematic of this political divide” in the European Parliament, said Bellamy. “The time has come for a new majority in the European Parliament to put things back on the right track.”

French leftist politician Manon Aubry, co-president of The Left group in the European Parliament, told Euractiv on Monday that the far right in Europe is converging with the right, centre-right, and liberals on policies and politics ahead of EU elections, “particularly on environmental legislation”, but also the new EU migration pact.

Latest polls give the Republicans 7% of voting intentions, compared with 16.5% for Macron’s Renaissance (Renew Europe) and 30% for the far-right Rassemblement national (RN, ID).