The European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, has survived a rare vote of censure in the European parliament, but faces calls to reverse the rightward drift of EU policies.
In the end 175 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) voted for the motion, 360 against and 18 abstained, on a turnout of 77% of the 720-strong parliament.
More than 160 MEPs did not show up to vote.
However, the debate lifted the lid on simmering discontent among centrist, centre-left and green MEPs who voted her back into office just under one year ago, after elections that gave rightwing nationalists their best-ever results.
The motion of censure – tabled by the far-right Romanian MEP, Gheorghe Piperea – was ostensibly about von der Leyen’s refusal to release text messages exchanged with the Pfizer Chief Executive at the height of the COVID pandemic.
Her stonewalling on the SMS messages has been condemned by the EU’s highest court and described as “maladministration” by an independent watchdog.
The motion also included criticism of the EU’s COVID recovery funds and the legal basis of a €150bn (£129bn) defence fund, as well as unsubstantiated claims of interference in recent elections in Germany and Romania.
Piperea’s text won the backing of 76 like-minded nationalists and extremists, clearing the 10% threshold required to get on the agenda.
That support was significantly boosted in the vote, when 175 MEPs voted for his motion, nearly 25% of the parliament’s members, reflecting the record-breaking numbers of nationalists and far-right MEPs elected in 2024.
Crucial to von der Leyen’s victory was the last-minute decision by socialists in the European parliament to vote against the motion, rather than abstain.
While the Socialists and Democrats (S&D), the second-largest group in the European parliament, had always said its MEPs would not support a far-right motion, many of them had flirted with abstaining to express their discontent with what they see as von der Leyen’s rightward drift.
Announcing the decision to reject the motion, the S&D leader, Iratxe García Pérez, said “dismantling the commission in the midst of geopolitical crisis would be completely irresponsible.”
However, she accused von der Leyen of shifting towards “far-right pledges” and said that trust had been badly damaged.
She urged the Commission President to show commitment “to our priorities … economy together, social growth, social justice and green transition.”
García Pérez highlighted decisions by von der Leyen’s centre- right European People’s party (EPP) to vote with the far right, for instance to block an EU ethics body, delay environmental reporting legislation and campaign against Green NGOs.
Von der Leyen Not Present At Vote
Von der Leyen was not present in the Strasbourg chamber, instead taking part in a conference in Rome on the reconstruction of Ukraine.
In a tweet soon after the vote that did not reference the motion, she expressed thanks.
“In a moment of global volatility and unpredictability, the EU needs strength, vision and the capacity to act.”
Ursula von der Leyen
Earlier this week, she derided “false claims about election meddling” and attempts to “rewrite history” on “how Europe successfully overcame a global pandemic together.”
During a debate on Monday, she cast the motion squarely as part of “an age of struggle between democracy and illiberalism.”
Referring to extremist parties “fuelled by conspiracies, from anti-vaxxers to Putin apologists,” she said, “And you only have to look at some of the signatories of this motion to understand what I mean.”
The last motion of censure against a Commission President was tabled against Jean-Claude Juncker in 2014 over the LuxLeaks scandal.
The parliament has never passed a motion of censure, but in 1999 such a threat triggered the resignation of the entire commission led by Jacques Santer, after a fraud and corruption scandal.
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