The one thing the Greens and the hard right have in common

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In today’s edition

• What do Greens and ECR have in common? Waiting for von der Leyen.
• Bits of the week: Hard right ECR group close to implosion as PiS ponders jumping ship; Party of European Left abandoned by Portuguese members who call for an alternative European party; AfD’s far-right group loses momentum; France’s right-wing party Les Républicains get sweet treats; Socialists, Renew, Greens complete election of their leadership.

Despite big differences in policy priorities, the Greens and hard right European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) have one thing in common: waiting for von der Leyen to extend her hand. 

Ahead of the European Council summit today, Thursday 27 June, EU leaders gather to discuss and approve a deal on who will take over the EU’s top jobs.

Yet, the key question remains whether the ECR heads of government, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni and Czechia’s Petr Fiala, will back Ursula von der Leyen’s nomination as Commission President.

She just needs a qualified majority among the leaders, but it is customary to have as much consensus as possible when it comes to the decision of who takes these roles. This time,  however, it seems everyone is ready to sideline Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. 

According to several EU diplomats, Meloni and Fiala are betting on powerful portfolios within the next Commission college, in exchange for their support.  

But to be able to claim their prize, they need to wait until von der Leyen is confirmed by the European Parliament in mid-July, when she will be able to start building her college. 

Instead, today Meloni and Fiala will be waiting for a sign, a promise from the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) that they will get the portfolios they are seeking. 

Once von der Leyen has the Council’s approval, she needs to woo the Parliament.  

“We have to think about the Parliament because this package has to have [its] support and it is such a complex package. But we are close,” Finish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, of the EPP family, said on his arrival at the leaders’ summit.  

In the Parliament, the balance of powers is different than in the Council. Instead of the ECR, it seems she will need to reach out to the Greens to find enough votes to secure her confirmation.  

She needs to embrace the Greens because von der Leyen’s key coalition partners, the Liberals and Socialists, have made it very clear they would never support her if she got too close to the hard right. 

Most importantly, the Greens can give her the number of votes she would not get from the many parties within ECR which despise her, such as Poland’s PiS.

In Parliament, the Greens have desperately made clear they are available to form a coalition and to compromise – seeking to retain some influence in the EU’s policymaking system – but they will have to wait for her.  

Though no formal contact has been established to kickstart negotiations, EPP and Greens members have had unofficial talks for weeks, Euractiv understands.  

Though von der Leyen has already met with the leader of the Liberals, Valérie Hayer, and the leader of the Socialists, Iratxe García, she has not yet met with the co-chairs of the Greens, Terry Reintke and Bas Eickhout.  

Rumour has it she will be reaching out to them next week.  

During their election campaign, the EPP seemed to have closed the door to the Greens. But important voices in the group seem now more open to the idea. 

“Our first point of contact is now the Social Democrats and the Liberals. At the same time, we will not refuse to engage in talks with all democratic parties that want to shape Europe in the coming years together with Ursula von der Leyen as Commission President and us as the strongest force in the European Parliament,” Daniel Caspary, leader of CDU/CSU in the European Parliament, told Euractiv.  

The Socialists also have an interest in bringing the Greens onboard: “I have a very, very special interest in showing the Greens must be part of a coalition (…) they also have projects that can lead to a stronger European economy,” Dutch Socialist party leader, Frans Timmermans, said arriving at the European Socialists’ pre-summit.  

For now, though, we need to wait until the EU’s leaders start having dinner, when they are expected to seal von der Leyen’s nomination, along with António Costa for the European Council presidency, and Kaja Kallas for the EU’s top diplomat post.  

Bits of the week

Poland’s PiS torpedoes hard right ECR group. The second biggest member of the hard right European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group after Giorgia Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia, Poland’s former ruling party PiS, did not show up to the group’s constitutive meeting on Wednesday (26 June), which had to be ultimately delayed to 3 July, one day before the unofficial deadline to compose the groups elapses to attribute positions and reports.   

… According to well-informed sources, PiS has an internal rift and cannot agree on who to put forward for the group’s leadership positions, while they also have been in confrontation with Fratelli d’Italia over the group’s new balance of powers. These rifts are expected to be ironed out during ECR’s working retreat in Sicily next week.  

…Orbán lurking PiS to new group with ANO? Rumours heard by Euractiv and media reports point that Hungary’s Fidesz is plotting a new hard right group alongside Czechia’s ANO. Poland’s PiS has been invited to join too, but it remains unclear whether they are ready to abandon the safety of ECR for the uncharted waters of a new, hypothetical group which needs 23 MEPs from seven EU countries. PiS leader Mateusz Morawicki told Politico on Thursday the chances of leaving are “50/50.” 

AfD’s new far-right group momentum dies down. Momentum for a new far-right group led by Germany’s AfD is fading. One of its potential members, Poland’s Konfederacja, also confirmed that the likelihood of the group really forming is very low. While a final agreement was expected on Tuesday 25 June, “we have time until 15 July,” a hopeful source involved in the negotiations told Euractiv.  

Rogue Les Républicains get sweet treats at EPP. The right-wing party Les Républicains, a member of the European People’s Party (EPP), has been at odds with the party’s pick for the Commission presidency, the incumbent Ursula von der Leyen, arguing she is too close to the liberal President Macron and does not embody centre-right values. At the same time, they have been under controversy recently due to the party’s leader Éric Ciotti decision to strike a deal with far-right Rassemblement National ahead of legislative elections. To cement ties with Les Républicains delegation in the European Parliament, which does not generally agree with Ciotti’s decision, the EPP has awarded the delegation leader, Francois-Xavier Bellamy, the positions of group vice-president and party treasurer.

New leftist party in the making as Party of the European Left starts collapsing. Portugal’s Bloco de Esquerda and Finland’s Left Alliance have both abandoned the Party of European Left (a separate entity from The Left group in the European Parliament), the only European party representing left-wing to radical left parties in the EU. This follows other departures such as La France Insoumise which years ago changed its status from full member to observer member. According to sources, PEL has failed to bring together left-wing parties. Instead, many rising left-wing parties have come together under an alternative alliance, “Now the People.” Read more here.  

…ouch! “The Party of the European Left (PEL) has failed to fulfil this task and is now seeing its capacity weakened by internal fragmentation, the result of sectarianism against the forces of the ‘Now the People’ platform, to which the Bloco de Esquerda belongs. Bloco, which can no longer agree with the ways in which the PEL functions, has decided to (…) set up, as soon as possible (…) a new European political party, in accordance with the and on the initiative of the ‘Now the People’ platform,” a statement from the Bloco de Esquerda dated 22 June reads.  

Socialists, Renew, and Greens elect group bureau. The Socialists and Democrats (S&D) group elected its vice-presidents on Wednesday 26: Mohammed Cahim (PvdA/Netherlands), Camilla Laureti (Partito Democratico/Italy), Gaby Bischoff (SDP/Germany), Christophe Clergeau (Parti Socialiste/France), Ana Catarina Mendes (Partido Socialista/Portugal), Kathleen van Brempt (Vooruit/Belgium), Ioannis Maniatis (PASOK/Greece), Helène Fritzon (Socialdemokraterna/Sweden), Alex Agius Saliba (Partit Laburista/Malta). Eero Heinäluoma (Suomen  Sosialdemohraattinen Puolue/Finland) elected treasurer. Incumbent President Iratxe García (PSOE/Spain) was reelected on Tuesday.  

Also on Wednesday 26 the liberal Renew Europe group elected its vice-presidents. The Irish Fianna Fáil takes over the first vice-presidency with Billy Kelleher. The other vice-presidents are Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy (D66/Netherlands), Irena Joveva (Gibanje Svoboda/Slovenia), Ivars Ijabs (Attistibai/Par!/Latvia), Morten Lokkegaard (Venstre/Denmark), Dan Barna (USR/Romania), and Anna-Maja Henriksson (Svenska Folkpartiet/Sweden). Joao Cotrim (Liberal Alliance/Portugal) is also elected vice-chair, after his failed attempt to get the group’s presidency from incumbent Valérie Hayer (Renaissance/France), who was reelected for her role on Tuesday.  

On Tuesday 25 June the Greens elected their group vice-presidents: Incumbent Commissioner for Environment Virginjius Sinkevicius – who wants to bridge Greens and centre-right EPP with his more conservative views – Kira Peter-Hansen (SF/Denmark), Alice Bah Kuhnke (Miljöpartiet de gröna/Sweden), Marie Toussaint (Europe Écologie/France), Sergey Lagodinsky (Die Grüne/Germany), and Ignazio Marino (Europa Verde). Last week Terry Reinke (Die Grüne/Germany) and Bas Eickhout (GroenLinks/Netherlands) were elected group co-chairs.  

If you’d like to contact me for tips, comments, and/or feedback, drop me a line at max.griera@euractiv.com

[Edited by Aurélie Pugnet/Zoran Radosavljevic/Rajnish Singh]

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