Following an intensive round of negotiations with parliamentary groups across the political spectrum, German conservative politician Ursula von der Leyen has secured a second term as president of the European Commission. She won the secret ballot of the newly elected European Parliament with 401 votes in favour, well above the majority of 360 needed. Other presidents have served two terms before her, but she is the first to be elected twice by the parliament, which, since 2014, elects, and not simply approves, the top leader of the European Union.
The centrist coalition that launched her bid – the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP), the centre-left Socialists and Democrats (S&D) and the centrist liberals Renew – emerged with the support of the Greens, who, along with Renew, suffered significant losses in the European Parliament elections in June.
A central topic of debate within the coalition has been whether to isolate or incorporate far-right parties, which have made significant gains. Together they have just one fewer MP than the EPP, currently the largest group in parliament. The “cordon sanitaire” against the far right has now been restricted to just two of the three far-right groups: Patriots of Europe, where France’s National Rally, Hungary’s Fidesz and Italy’s League, with their eurosceptic stances and pro-Vladimir Putin sympathies, are likely to give the new commission more than a few headaches, and Europe of Sovereign Nations, a collection of ultra-nationalist parties led by the extremists of Alternative for Germany. Both groups voted against von der Leyen.
Without a clear mandate from the S&D, Renew and the Greens, but with the support of the EPP, von der Leyen maintained an open dialogue with the far-right third group in Parliament, the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), in an effort to win the votes of Brothers of Italy, the party of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and the largest political party in the ECR. In the end, the ECR said its members would vote according to their “national interests”. Meloni’s party voted against the German technocrat, but managed to get a parliamentary vice-president elected along with another Latvian ECR MEP.
Von der Leyen's programmatic speech to parliament on Thursday shows that the rightward shift of European technocracy runs deeper than just contingent power trading.
The re-elected President of the European Commission has perfected an effective rhetorical style that, by resorting to right-wing keywords such as “culture” and “values”, elevates Europe to the status of an imaginary object to be treasured and yearned for, which she sums up as “our European way of life”. Europe is “our homeland” and has a symbolic role similar to that of the “nation” in far-right discourse.
Von der Leyen’s Europe faces several threats that require protective and decisive action. The Green Deal – probably her most important bipartisan legacy – is recast in the language of economic prosperity and competitiveness, echoing the kind of economic nationalism that former President Donald Trump imposed on the United States. The focus is on creating wealth and prosperity for European businesses, farmers and workers, with no serious talk of alliances with other global players – and even less so with countries in the Global South, which possess most of the critical raw materials needed for the green transition. Driven by the EPP, this is a conservative response to the massive wave of green scepticism that hit the ballot box in June: attacking European green policies is the far-right’s new “culture war”.
Von der Leyen said Europe needs protection from external security threats, not just from war – through the legitimate and widely agreed goal of a common European defence system – but also from migrants and refugees. Backing the European anti-immigration consensus on the streets, she promised to expand the much-criticised European border agency, Frontex. This is likely to lead to even more death, suffering and human rights violations for those trying to cross borders into Europe while fleeing war, natural disasters and poverty.
In a cynical gesture, von der Leyen, echoing Meloni’s Mattei Plan for Africa, announced that she would appoint a new commissioner for the Mediterranean region, whose role will be to oversee strategic partnerships with non-European countries linked to stemming migration flows. The plan is the infamous agreement signed with Tunisia last year, which was marked by two joint visits to Tunisia by von der Leyen, Meloni and then-Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, and which promised more than $1 billion to help Tunisia emerge from its unprecedented economic crisis in exchange for preventing departures from Tunisian shores to Europe.
The protection of democracy – another key theme of German policy discourse – has also been narrowly framed within the need to counter hostile external forces. It proposed a European Shield of Democracy to deal with foreign information manipulation and interference. These concerns are real and need to be addressed, but there is certainly more to be done to preserve and revitalise democracy.
As a consensus leader – a necessity dictated by the structure of the European Union – von der Leyen rightly stressed the importance of social rights and social dialogue. She presented a housing plan that addresses the dire situation of millions of European workers struggling to find decent and affordable housing, especially in cities. However, her speech left the feeling that the signals to her progressive allies were a mere footnote to her central vision.
In short, von der Leyen advocates an inward-looking Europe that prioritises its own wealth and privilege over global cooperation and social justice, while ramping up fear-mongering, hatred and violence against migrants and refugees. The results of the June election suggest that the European Commission president may be reading the sentiments of large sections of the European population. While progressive forces are up against her on inequality, welfare and the environment, opposition to her anti-immigration policies remains moderate. Europeans who believe that humanity and solidarity are non-negotiable founding principles for Europe’s future will have a hard time fighting against the tide.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial stance of Al Jazeera.
