EU chief Ursula von der Leyen called for unity Monday as she warned lawmakers that confidence votes she faces this week in the European Parliament played into the hands of the bloc’s foes.
“The truth is that our adversaries are not only ready to exploit any divisions — they are actively inciting those divisions in the first place,” the European Commission head told parliament’s opening session in Strasbourg.
Less than three months after surviving a similar challenge, the two motions of censure against von der Leyen, from the hard-left and far-right, have almost no chance of bringing down von der Leyen when they are put to a vote on Thursday.
Yet, since July, frustration with the EU chief has increased.
Grievances include accusations of a lack of transparency as well as von der Leyen’s EU trade deal with US President Donald Trump in July — denounced by many EU lawmakers as unbalanced.
Jordan Bardella, leader of France’s National Rally and an EU lawmaker whose Patriots group brought the motion, slammed Europe’s trade “surrender” at Monday’s parliament debate.
Hard-left France Unbowed lawmaker Manon Aubry accused von der Leyen of “capitulating” to Trump on a series of issues including trade deals with Washington and with the South American Mercosur bloc.
Aubry also accused the EU chief of “inaction” over the “genocide” in Gaza.
Von der Leyen has defended her tariff deal with Trump as the best the EU could get, but on Monday acknowledged the issues raised on both trade and Gaza came from a place of “genuine and legitimate concern”.
Thursday’s votes will showcase the state of the so-called pro-European coalition between von der Leyen’s conservative EPP grouping — parliament’s biggest force — and the centrists, and socialists.
Von der Leyen faces the heat from all sides.
Leftist and centrist MEPs accuse her EPP of siding with the far-right to axe green business rules.
“It’s very unstable,” said centrist EU lawmaker Pascal Canfin, who fears the socialist grouping could eventually quit the coalition.
“Do we have a better alternative scenario? By far, no. Because any alternative scenario would be even worse,” he said.
But Iratxe Garcia Perez of the centre-left Socialists and Democrats delivered a stark warning to von der Leyen.
“You must choose between your allies and those who are not our friends,” she said in the parliament.
A combative von der Leyen defended her record and called for unity, stressing the challenges the EU faces such as the war in Ukraine.
She pointed to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “glee” over Europe’s shaken unity, and urged lawmakers to vote down the motions set up as a “trap”.
“This is the oldest trick in the book,” she said. “To turn Europeans against each other, to try to lower our guard while we fight each other.”
Yet an annual address to parliament by von der Leyen last month failed to produce unity inside her coalition.
“The leaders of the two main groups’ first reaction was to attack each other,” a commission source said, referring to the EPP’s Manfred Weber and Garcia Perez.
The tensions have so far had limited impact since there is no major legislation being pushed through the assembly.
But Weber has warned coming months will be a “moment of truth”.
Major laws the EU hopes to approve by the end of the year include proposals to simplify environmental laws that divide lawmakers.
The left and centrists’ biggest fear is that the right and far-right will coordinate to water down more green rules.
For now, minds are focused on the consequences of Thursday’s votes.
“The risk isn’t that the motion of censure will pass this time, but that everything will coalesce around a text that leads to a deadlock and dismantles the (alliance) majority,” a senior EU official said.
A successful vote of no-confidence would be a historical first.
The closest parallel dates from March 1999, when the commission led by Luxembourg’s Jacques Santer resigned en masse over damning corruption claims and mismanagement rather than face a confidence vote it was set to lose.
