Terry Reintke, the German Green MEP chair, said her group would “absolutely” not support von der Leyen – the incumbent centre-right commission president who is seeking a second term – if she made a deal with the Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni’s group in the European parliament, the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR).
Reintke warned that if von der Leyen joined forces with the ECR, which has repeatedly voted against EU green policies, the EU’s plan to tackle the climate crisis would be in danger. “It’s much more likely that the green deal will be killed, or at least slowed down”. She said this would be “a disaster not only for the climate, but also for the economic standing of Europe” in the face of intense competition from the US and China.
"Ursula von der Leyen – when you look at her track record – she very often is a politician that follows the zeitgeist,” Reintke claimed. “And the zeitgeist in 2019 was towards green Europe. Now she has a lot of pressure from her own political group, and we know that EPP wants to turn back and basically say we do business as usual.”
Von der Leyen has twice refused to rule out working with Meloni, who she described as “clearly pro-European”. Rival candidates have excoriated von der Leyen for failing to mention the complaints of Italian journalists who have alleged “suffocating control” from Meloni’s government over their work. Von der Leyen has also glossed over the Italian government’s restrictions on LGBTQ+ rights, merely saying she took a “completely different approach”.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Green members of the European parliament will not support Ursula von der Leyen for a second term as the commission president if she makes a deal with hard-right nationalists, the party’s joint lead candidate has said.
The intervention deepens the dilemma for von der Leyen, the clear frontrunner for the commission top job, after a similar pledge from the centre left, which has said it will not support her if she works with hard-right parties, including Meloni’s Brothers of Italy.
Von der Leyen is seeking a second five-year term as commission president at the EU elections on 6-9 June, where nationalist and far-right parties across Europe are expected to make significant gains at the expense of the traditional centre-right, social democrats, liberals and greens.
While the mainstream centre-right European People’s party (EPP), which includes von der Leyen’s German Christian Democrats (CDU), is likely to remain the biggest force in the parliament, with a possible 175 MEPs, she has to secure a much broader coalition.
So for me, this is going to be the key question: Is there going to be a majority that is continuing the green deal, that is standing firm on democracy, on rule of law, in the next European parliament to back Ursula von der Leyen or whatever other candidate.
Rival candidates have excoriated von der Leyen for failing to mention the complaints of Italian journalists who have alleged “suffocating control” from Meloni’s government over their work.
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