Former Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa heads to the European Parliament this Monday, as the assembly begins in Strasbourg, to try to persuade MEPs from the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats to vote as a bloc for a re-candidate for the European presidency. Commission, German Ursula van der Leyen, presented by the European People’s Party.
The Portuguese socialist, who will become president of the European Council as part of an agreement between the main European families, will take part in a meeting of the committee, which includes eight PS MEPs, this Monday afternoon.
Elections for the president of the European Commission are scheduled for Thursday morning – this Monday will see who will lead the European Parliament for the next two-and-a-half years, along with Maltese Roberta Metzola of the European People’s Party. Running back from the left group facing Spanish Irene Montero.
Ursula van der Leyen needs the votes of 361 delegates, as the position of president of the European Commission requires an absolute majority. Moreover, if the commitment between the European People’s Party, Socialists & Democrats and Renewal Europe is fulfilled, it is doubtful that many liberal MEPs from the European center-right will not vote for Germany, as this objective will be easier to achieve. , which would mark the collapse of the consensus that would replace Antonio Costa, the president of the European Council, and the liberal Kaja Kallas as Estonia’s prime minister.
Taking into account that the vote is secret and many Socialist MEPs may “lose” Ursula van der Leyen’s name, Antonio Costa will try to ensure that the teams blocking Germany’s election are closed. If that happens, the European Council will present a new candidate within a month, with the guarantee that the European People’s Party will not put forward a new name.
However, the European People’s Party, which again has the largest group in the European Parliament, wanted to expand the informal “grand coalition” that dominated politics in Brussels and Strasbourg, seeking support between the Greens and conservatives and reformers. A group of right-wing movements including the Brothers of Italy led by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
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