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BRUSSELS — The European Parliament’s centrist forces made one thing clear in the June election: Right-wing groups wouldn’t be allowed positions of power.
But when the Parliament divvied up the top jobs in its 20 committees, each including a chair and four vice-chairs, on Tuesday, MEPs broke that promise — at least in part.
Last week when the jobs were divided up, mainstream groups banded together in an attempt to keep far-right forces out.
The Patriots for Europe group, home of MEPs aligned with Viktor Orbán and Marine Le Pen, which is the third-largest group in the Parliament with 84 MEPs, was completely cut out of the process despite being allocated two committee chairs and eight vice-chairs in proportion to the seats they won when political groups informally divided posts among themselves. Europe of Sovereign Nations lawmakers (the EU home of the extreme right Alternative for Germany) were also completely cut out of leadership positions.
Harald Vilimsky, a member of the Austrian far-right Freedom Party and a vice-president of the Patriots, criticized the other groups for using “the cordon sanitaire to keep us from working for our voters,” referring to a tactic used by mainstream parties to keep the far right from power.
He warned that the Patriots “will react” and “will try to set up alliances” with other political forces to become stronger, without giving any further details.
In a press conference on Tuesday, Hungarian MEP Kinga Gál, claimed the blockade was a breach of the Parliament’s rules.
“It clearly shows that they are not prepared to accept democratic election results and the fact that the Patriots are the third largest group in the European Parliament,” the Patriots’ first vice-president added.
She also said the Patriots group will “challenge” the decision at the Conference of Presidents — the body that gathers heads of political groups — and explore “all available legal remedies” including going as far as bringing a case to the EU’s top court in Luxembourg.
Gál suggested that “one good alliance would be with the [European Conservatives and Reformists]” would be enough to see “changes at the mid-term.”
ECR cleans up
In contrast, the European Conservatives and Reformists, led by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s MEP, took home a number of key roles. The Patriots, politically, sit to the right of ECR.
The Italian PM had been courted by Ursula von der Leyen as part of her bid for a second term as European Commission president. When it came time for EU leaders to vote on von der Leyen, Meloni abstained. Then in a Parliament vote on von der Leyen, Meloni’s MEPs voted no.
The ECR, which gained 9 seats in the European election, taking it up to 78, will chair the budgets, agriculture, and petitions committees, as well as holding 10 vice-presidencies across other committees. The ECR also secured two Parliament vice-presidencies during last week’s plenary session. In the last parliamentary term, ECR had one vice-president and chaired the budgets committee.
The group mainly put forward candidates from what is seen as its more moderate wing, including Belgium’s New Flemish Alliance, the Czech Republic’s Civic Democratic Party, and, mostly, from Meloni’s Brothers of Italy.
However, ECR nominees did face opposition in several committees from the liberals of Renew, the Socialists and Democrats, and the Greens.
In the civil liberties committee, the nomination of Charlie Weimers of ECR member the Sweden Democrats as a vice-chair caused uproar. French Renew MEP Fabienne Keller requested a vote be held on whether to postpone the appointment for ECR to find a vice chair “who is prepared to defend and protect the fundamental values of the EU, particularly, non-discrimination.”
The Greens supported the motion “to make sure that ECR can find a more decent candidate that is not racist,” MEP Tineke Strik said.
Her motion failed and Weimers was elected.
“I aspire to be a decent chair,” the Swedish politician said after winning the vote, while smiling at Keller and Strik. Keller proceeded to request the vote be in a secret ballot, just like most of positions allocated to ECR lawmakers in the other committees, allowing for the MEPs to vote freely and avoid public scrutiny.
Employment committee lawmakers didn’t vote for a fourth vice chair on Tuesday after the far-right European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), who were supposed to get the post, asked for a postponement. Dennis Radtke, the coordinator for the center-right European People’s Party, told his group that it was ready to support the ECR, according to a last-minute gathering POLITICO attended before being asked to leave the “private meeting.”
Gender balance issues
On Tuesday night, the leaders of the EPP, ECR, Europe of Sovereign Nations, Greens, and Renew allowed for the annulment of rules meant to ensure gender balance at the top of the committees in five cases: internal market, defense, constitutional affairs, foreign affairs, and agriculture, as reported first by POLITICO.
While a rule that says the chair and first vice chair must be of different genders was maintained, negotiators agreed not to fulfill a rule that the second, third and fourth vice chairs represent a gender mix.
Many lawmakers raised concerns. “This is a very male-dominated committee,” German Green lawmaker Hannah Neumann complained during the defense committee session.
Christophe Clergeau of S&D proposed postponing the vote on the fourth vice-chair for the agriculture committee after the EPP proposed Polish MEP Krzysztof Hetman, as the other three vice-chairs were also men.
Asked by POLITICO if he expected his proposal to pass, Clergeau laughed and said: “No!”
But the proposal passed as Patriots for Europe MEPs abandoned the room before the vote and a majority of groups sided against EPP’s nominee. The vote on fourth vice chair will take place in September.
The S&D tried a similar move in the foreign affairs committee, without success. The ECR successfully postponed the appointment of their own vice-chair in the economy committee, to have more time to find a candidate that would fit the gender requirements.
Clothilde Goujard, Mathieu Pollet, Jordyn Dahl, Victor Jack and Jacopo Barigazzi contributed reporting.
