Parliament approves von der Leyen’s right-wing European Commission, which will start work in December

Ogres

European Union (EU) lawmakers on Wednesday, the 27th of November, approved Ursula von der Leyen’s team for her second term in office after a months-long process that started with the European Parliament (EP) elections in June and ended after weeks of political infighting between the bloc’s left and right wing groups, reports “Politico“.
“Finding ways to work with each other and overcome fragmentation. This is what I and all 26 women and men alongside me will strive for every day. We are ready to get to work immediately,” said European Commission (EC) President von der Leyen after the vote.
For the first time since 1999, all Commission candidates were confirmed, with candidates winning the votes of both right and left-wing groups.
370 MEPs voted in favour of a new right-wing group of 27 MEPs, including von der Leyen – one from each of the bloc’s countries – to start a five-year term from the 1st of December.
282 voted against and 36 abstained.
The centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) holds 14 of these posts, including the Commission’s presidency. Despite their losses in the June elections, the Liberals will have five Commissioners, the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) four and the right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) one.
This new Commission has the lowest level of support in Parliament since 1993, when Parliament first had the right to vote on it.
Von der Leyen’s new Commission, which will be led by six executive vice-presidents (Estonia’s Kaja Kallas, Italy’s Raffaele Fito, Romania’s Roxana Minzatu, France’s Stephane Ségurnet, Spain’s Teresa Ribera and Finland’s Henna Virkunen), faced opposition over the inclusion of right-winger Raffaele Fito, which infuriated S&D, Renew and Green lawmakers.
Despite the loss of support, the legislators representing the hard-right ECR backed the Commission and in the weeks before all groups facilitated the confirmation of all Commissioners in individual screening sessions.