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Centre-right chief Manfred Weber repeatedly voted with the hard right in the Conference of Presidents (CoP), the Parliament’s executive body, leaving political partners on the left furious. Is there still a cordon sanitaire when it can turn into a jump rope without consequences?
One of the favourite talking points among left-leaning EU lawmakers is the rightward shift of Manfred Weber, the leader of the European People’s Party (EPP) group.
Leading lefties have long suspected that the omnipotent Bavarian is secretly working toward a rapprochement between the centre-right and far-right pariah groups. Weber’s public flirts with Italy’s hard-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni certainly did not help his case.
The fears are certainly not entirely unfounded. More than once within the past week, Weber supposedly broke the cordon sanitaire – an unwritten agreement among centrist parties to exclude fringe forces on either end of the political spectrum – when meeting with his fellow group leaders at the CoP.
The conference might be largely unknown to the public, but it is undeniably powerful. As the Parliament’s executive body, it convenes all its group leaders to decide things such as tabling or removing items from the agenda.
One majority in plenary, two in the conference
Coming out of the European elections in June, the collective left breathed a sigh of relief as the much-feared alternative majority lapping from centre-right EPP over conservative ECR to far-right PfE did not emerge. The three groups assign 351 members, just short of a parliamentary majority of 361.
However, in the CoP, the reality is different.
Here, the group leaders decide and vote based on the weight of their respective camps. Since the group of non-attached members does not count, the EPP, ECR and PfE can easily secure a majority on their own.
This happened when Weber voted with group presidents to his right last week to block lawmakers from the environment committee from grilling the new Agriculture and Fisheries Commissioner.
On Thursday (10 October), he voted to make Meloni‘s ally Raffaele Fitto the first senior commissioner to face the Parliament’s hearings – allegedly an advantage. Again, his support came exclusively from hard to far-right groups, parliamentarian sources told Euractiv. The EPP dismissed this as normal procedure, according to Spiegel.
But the spiral of outrage on the left followed instantly. “We see the EPP playing a double game here. Sometimes they have a majority with us, sometimes with the extreme right,“ Iratxe Garcia Perez, leader of the S&D group, told the magazine.
Weber’s pick and mix
Anyone who has been around longer than just the past months may remember that the S&D, the European Greens, and Renew Europe vowed to crash the EPP’s bid for the Commission presidency if it cooperated with – you guessed it – the conservative ECR.
Yet, EPP Commission President Ursula von der Leyen first openly sought the backing of Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia (ECR) in her confirmation vote in the Parliament in July and then went on to place Fratelli d’Italia’s commissioner-designate close to the very top of the new Commission pyramid. Despite this, most members of the S&D, Greens, and Renew Europe voted in favour of her presidency rather than withdrawing support.
This raises more questions for the left than for Weber. With his shenanigans in the CoP hinting at synergies that reach even further right, one cannot help wondering what it takes to rip the cordon sanitaire and, thus, for the outraged left to actually make good on its promises.
From the circle of the centre to left parties, one has yet to hear a satisfying definition.
The implication is clear: von der Leyen’s Commission and the EPP can make separate deals with groups on both their right and left and still push their desired outcomes through.
Unless the centre-left starts reacting to such coordination with a systematic withdrawal of support for the Commission and its EPP allies, the pre-election promise to resist a Commission that draws on support to its right is looking pretty hollow.
The Roundup
EU member states bordering the Mediterranean met in Cyprus on Friday (11 October) to discuss the situation in the Middle East amid an escalation of Israel’s bombings in Palestine and Lebanon.
The Hungarian presidency of the Council of the EU suggests a potential revival of the review of the e-Privacy directive in draft Council conclusions dated Wednesday (9 October) and seen by Euractiv.
Germans dominate while Belgians punch above their weight among the European Parliament’s new committee coordinators, responsible for shepherding legislation and brokering compromises, according to Euractiv’s analysis.
Japanese organisation Nihon Hidankyo, a grassroots movement of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday (11 October), in a warning to countries who have nuclear weapons not to use them.
With inflation under control and projected growth rising, the outlook seems to be positive for Europe’s e-commerce market, however, fierce competition from US and Chinese platforms, the application of European laws, and heightened investment to meet consumer demand continue to pose significant challenges.
Look out for
- The Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the EU organises in Budapest, Hungary, a Conference on the development of electricity networks.
- CEPS is organising in Brussels, Belgium, a conference on “Implementing the InvestEU Programme: achievements and the way forward”
- The EPC is organising in Brussels, Belgium, a Conference on “CHES Annual Lecture”
- European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is in Paphos, Cyprus for the MED9 Leaders’ Summit.
- European Commissioner Elisa Ferreira will meet with a delegation from the Committee for Local Government and Territorial Cohesion of the Assembly of the Republic of Portugal.
- European Commissioner Didier Reynders participates in the opening session of the International Product Safety Week (IPSW).
- European Commissioner Margaritis Schinas meets President of Greece Katerina Sakellaropoulou, in Athens, Greece.
- Schinas will also meet Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
- EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell meets UK Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs David Lammy.
- European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen participates in the Berlin Process Summit in Berlin, Germany.
[Edited by Rajnish Singh/Martina Monti]
Source: euractiv.com
