Second von der Leyen era on track to start Dec. 1

Since September, von der Leyen has carefully curated her 26 commissioners (one from each of the European Union’s 27 member countries; she is Germany’s commissioner), to consolidate her own hold over the Commission and the EU’s policy-making. She assigned six executive vice presidents (Estonia’s Kaja Kallas, Italy’s Raffaele Fitto, Romania’s Roxana Mînzatu, France’s Stéphane Séjourné, Spain’s Teresa Ribera and Finland’s Henna Virkkunen) to manage the “regular” commissioners. 

The decision to include right-winger Fitto as her minister of EU affairs upset the European Parliament’s second-largest group, the Socialists and Democrats, who rebuked von der Leyen’s center-right European People’s Party for giving someone in the European Conservatives and Reformists group such a coveted position. In turn, the EPP threatened to topple S&D’s Ribera.

In a show of EPP power, the S&D’s fretting was ultimately for naught as they conceded to von der Leyen on Fitto, clearing the path for a Dec. 1 start. Ribera will become the EU executive’s de facto No. 2 commissioner, with a brief covering competition and climate.

“Everybody can have a strong say for the future of Europe. Socialists have strong dossiers. Liberals have strong dossiers, EPP is in the lead and [has] a lot of commissioners. And also Italy should be part of all the future Commission leadership,” said EPP leader Manfred Weber Wednesday after the deal was announced.

With this new makeup, the Commission reflects the EU’s tilt to the right since June’s European election, where the right and the far right made gains in key member countries such as Italy, France and Germany. The EPP and von der Leyen remain on top with 14 commissioners while continuing to forge deals on both the left and the right. 

“This was a bluff of EPP,” said Greens lawmaker Thomas Waitz, who is also the chair of the European Green Party, referring to the threats against Ribera. “But they were obviously successful in making Social Democrats believe that they might risk the whole Commission just for rejecting Madame Ribera.”