EPP infighting: CDU warns Les Républicains. “We expect the Républicans to realise that anyone who is with us in the EPP should also do their bit to ensure that Ursula von der Leyen remains Commission President,” Daniel Caspary, CDU delegation leader in the European Parliament told reporters, including Euractiv’s Nick Alipour, on Thursday. Les Républicains opposed von der Leyen as the party’s candidate for the Commission presidency, arguing she is “Macron’s candidate” and does not embody centre-right values.
…who is the boss? Caspary said that he aims at a centre coalition with Socialists and Greens if they “participate in a realistic package in which it is recognised that we are the strongest force,” which “must also be reflected in the content of the compromises.”
However, he added “we can’t reject anyone at the moment”, as the EPP will need a clear majority to appoint von der Leyen. He noted that Italy’s Meloni’s party has been reliable in passing the migration pact while the Greens voted against von der Leyen in 2019.
The Parliament’s “unfinished business” list. Having concluded its legislative work on 25 April, 119 draft proposals are now paused until the newly elected Parliament gets to work in July. The Conference of Presidents, composed of the Parliament and political group presidents, will then decide which files to keep working on, and how (traditionally, it resumes work on all). Files include the transparency register for foreign actors bill, the contentious New Genomic Techniques regulation, and the Combating Corruption Directive. More information here.
63 of these files have not passed the plenary vote and are currently in the preparatory phase or in committee, meaning the next Parliament composition will be able to highly influence the files’ content.
Von der Leyen’s campaign debut. As she was neither a Spitzenkandidat nor running for election in 2019, Europe was able to see von der Leyen in campaign mode for the first time during the first EU election debate this week in Maastricht, co-organised by Studio Europa and Politico.
Von der Leyen did not hesitate to push back against her opponents, all targeting her, also mentioning her family several times in an effort to make her tone of voice more “personal”, a key part of her campaign strategy.
… snappy to Left and far-right. “I am getting tired of hearing that because, I mean, beg your pardon, but if you want to end this war, Putin just has to stop fighting, then the war is over”, she said, repeating the general EU stance, in reaction to the European Left’s Walter Baier, who argued for starting peace negotiations with Russia.
Then, turning to her right and looking at ID’s Anders Vistisen, she continued: “And to you, when I see what the AfD [ID] colleagues have done, they are under investigation for being in the pocket of Putin, and if you look at the electoral programme, you will see they echo the lies and the propaganda of the Kremlin, so clean up your house before you criticise us!”
….post-debate mayhem. Following the debate, a student-organised pro-Palestine protest against von der Leyen penetrated the security perimeter, with police barricading the venue’s entrance and trapping attendees inside. An after-party in front of the venue had to be cancelled due to security concerns as protesters stormed the outside ‘village’.
Earlier during the debate, von der Leyen said: “I’m never drawing red lines but I think it would be completely unacceptable if Netanyahu would invade Rafah,” adding that if that happened she would sit with the member states and “act”.
Overall, the debate exposed the weaknesses of the Spitzenkandidat system, Nick Alipour writes.
Campaign trail: European Greens hold their grand electoral rally in Brussels on 3 May, with Terry Reintke, Bas Eickhout, and Finnish presidential runner-up Pekka Haavisto; European Socialists and lead candidate Nicolas Schmit travel to Cologne and Aachen on 3 May to discuss reindustrialisation, competition policy and working conditions, and later to Paris to meet with France’s S&D lead candidate Raphaël Glucksmann, Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, while on 4 May Schmit will go to Berlin to participate in a conference with Chancellor Olaf Scholz on how to battle the far-right surge; EPP’s Ursula von der Leyen goes next week to Poland, Germany, and Croatia.
SPD vs AfD, Tajani vs Salvini. Germany’s far-right AfD party, plagued by scandals in recent months, is falling behind in the polls and is now neck-and-neck with Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD), with both parties at 16 seats. Meanwhile, in Italy, Matteo Salvini’s far-right Lega (ID) and Antonio Tajani’s centre-right Forza Italia (EPP) are tied at seven seats, after Lega’s continued drop in popularity as their voters shift to Giorgia Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia (ECR). Check the late-April EU election projections here.
