BRUSSELS (AP) — European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen comfortably survived a vote of no confidence on Thursday, as an overwhelming number of European Union lawmakers rejected a censure motion against her.
The motion contained a mix of allegations against von der Leyen, including text messaging privately with the chief executive of vaccine maker Pfizer during the COVID-19 pandemic, misuse of EU funds and interference in elections in Germany and Romania.
The motion was defeated in a 360-175 vote against it, with 18 lawmakers choosing to abstain during a plenary session at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France.
Von der Leyen wasn't present for the vote, but taking to social media, she posted: “As external forces seek to destabilize and divide us, it is our duty to respond in line with our values. Thank you, and long live Europe.”
The vote has been a lightning rod for criticism of Von der Leyen — who led the EU drive to find vaccines for around 450 million citizens during the pandemic — and her European People’s Party, or EPP, which is the largest political family in the assembly.
They’re accused of cozying up to the hard right to push through their agenda and sidestepping mainstream pro-European parties when it's difficult or inconvenient to form a majority. The European Parliament shifted perceptibly to the political right after Europe-wide elections a year ago.
“We won’t vote with the far-right and we do not support this motion. This vote was little more than a far-right PR stunt from Putin-loving populists," Greens group President Terry Reintke said in a statement after the poll, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
However, she added: "We are ready to build pro-European majorities, but we will not be played by the EPP in their desperate deregulation agenda and their desire to consistently form anti-European majorities with the far-right.”
Iratxe García Pérez, the leader of the No. 2 bloc in parliament, the Socialists and Democrats, said that “our vote doesn’t mean that we are not critical of the European Commission. The recent shifts by von der Leyen towards far-right pledges are a major cause for alarm.”
After voting against, Valerie Hayer, the leader of the pro-business Renew group, insisted in a social media post that von der Leyen must “take control of her political family to put an end to alliances with the far right.”
The EPP has notably worked with the hard right to fix the agenda for hearing von der Leyen’s new commissioners when they were questioned for their suitability for their posts last year, and to reject an ethics body meant to combat corruption.
The censure motion, the first at the European Parliament in over a decade, was brought against the European Commission president by a group of hard-right lawmakers.
On the eve of the vote, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Facebook that it would “be the moment of truth: on one side the imperial elite in Brussels, on the other patriots and common sense. There is no getting out of it, it is essential to make a choice.”
He posted: “Madam President, the essence of leadership is responsibility. Time to go!” Von der Leyen's commission has frequently clashed with Orbán over his staunchly nationalist government's moves to roll back democracy. The European Commission has frozen Hungary's access to billions of euros in EU funds.
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Justin Spike contributed to this report from Budapest, Hungary.
Lorne Cook, The Associated Press
