Ursula von der Leyen has been re-elected to a second five-year term as president of the European Commission following a vote by EU lawmakers, as the continent’s mainstream seeks to reassert itself in the face of a far-right gaining popularity.
In an earlier presentation to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, von der Leyen pledged on Thursday (18) to invest in infrastructure and industry, create a new “European Defence Union” and stay the course on the continent’s green transition.
After a secret ballot, von der Leyen was re-elected with 401 votes in favor and 284 against. She needed at least 361 votes to secure a majority in the 720-seat parliament.
Von der Leyen, who led the commission through the Covid-19 pandemic and the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, will now preside over a bloc that has shifted to the right after last month’s European elections, when far-right parties won a record number of seats.
Addressing parliament ahead of the lunchtime vote, von der Leyen said the next five years of her term “will define Europe’s place in the world for the next five decades. It will decide whether we shape our own future or let it be shaped by events or others”.
Von der Leyen, a 65-year-old German citizen, was parachuted into the presidential race as a compromise candidate in 2019 but has since become one of Europe’s most solid pillars. Several of the continent’s other leaders — from former German Chancellor Angela Merkel to French President Emmanuel Macron — have retired or been weakened by domestic politics.
Von der Leyen’s own standing has been somewhat diminished by last month’s election, which saw a surge in support for the far right and saw the centre in Brussels shrink.
Her re-election was not certain but widely expected after being proposed by EU leaders and having the support of her centre-right European People’s Party (EPP), as well as the centre-left Socialists and Democrats (S&D) and liberal Renew blocs. Shortly before Thursday’s vote, the Green Bloc also announced it would support her.
Von der Leyen published a 31-page policy proposal outlining her priorities should she win a second term.
Echoing remarks she made after last month’s vote, she stressed “it is essential that the democratic centre in Europe holds up” in the face of a resurgence of extremes, calling on mainstream parties to “rise to the scale of the concerns and challenges people face”.
Von der Leyen pledged to “turbocharge the investment” needed by financially strapped EU governments for their “green, digital and social transitions”.
She also promised to create a European Defence Union and appoint a defence commissioner, a new role for the bloc that was forged in peacetime but has since had to respond to Russia’s brutal war in Ukraine and the prospect of the United States leaving the international community under Donald Trump.
Under the proposed new defence union, member states would retain responsibility for their own troops but work more closely with others to “coordinate efforts to strengthen the defence industrial base”. It also proposed a Europe-wide air defence system and cyber protection measures.
Speaking in Strasbourg ahead of her re-election, von der Leyen said Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s recent trip to Moscow to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin was “a mission of appeasement” and vowed to maintain EU support for Ukraine.
Von der Leyen’s re-election comes a day after the EU’s second-highest court handed down an unusual rebuke to the commission, ruling that it had not been sufficiently transparent about contracts it signed for Covid-19 vaccines during the pandemic.
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Source: CNN Brasil
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