Centrists emerge as dealmakers in squabble over EU commissioners, but right looms large

STRASBOURG, France (CN) — After weeks of haggling and political infighting, the new executive European Commission team is expected to get the green light on Wednesday — but it remains to be seen how much lawmakers will rely on newly ascendant right-wing forces to push their agenda.

The EU Parliament , the European Union’s legislative body, should have confirmed the advisers before the U.S. presidential elections on Nov. 5, but the process has been marred by delays and political games, especially between the Parliament’s feuding political groups. 

Relevant Parliament committees approved most of the 26 commissioners-designate — who, together with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, will make up the new EU executive team — in mid-November.

But a political fight between the Parliament’s center-right European People’s Party, the EPP, and the Socialists & Democrats, S&D, derailed initial planning for weeks. The final seven commissioners-designate were only confirmed Wednesday after what the Left group denounced as a “backroom deal” that doesn’t exclude a future partnership with the European Conservatives and Reformists.

This week’s vote is expected when the European Parliament meets in Strasbourg, France, on Wednesday.

Several of the final controversial commissioners were Spain’s Teresa Ribera, executive vice president for clean, just and competitive transition, from the S&D; Italy’s Raffaele Fitto, executive vice president for cohesion and reforms, from the ECR, and Hungary’s Olivér Várhelyi, a right-leaning commissioner for health and animal welfare from Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s Fidesz party, with the EPP. 

Ribera faced questioning over her role in Spain’s recent catastrophic flooding; the EPP agreed to greenlight her appointment. Some leftist groups called for her resignation, but she was ultimately given the go-ahead.

Fitto, a member of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing Brothers of Italy party, was also approved in an important role as a vice president. Socialists and liberals questioned his appointment.

Hungary’s Olivér Várhelyi also ultimately got approval with the caveat that he not lead health preparedness and sexual and reproductive rights.

While von der Leyen’s new European Commission looks likely to be approved, a significant portion of EU lawmakers have been left with a bad aftertaste since the deal had little to do with the people to be approved and more to do with political infighting.

Since right-wing parties made gains in the Parliament during the European elections in June, the center-right European People’s Party could be tempted to rely on ad-hoc coalitions with them — rather than the liberal and left-wing parties, which so far had been the preferred partner — to get their policies approved.

While last Wednesday’s deal commits the EPP to working with centrist forces, it does not prohibit them from turning to the right wing on occasion.

“As the EU Parliament prepares to vote von der Leyen into office, she will have to clarify which political majority she intends to rely upon and respond to over the coming five years,” Alberto Alemanno, a professor of EU law at HEC Paris Business School, said on X. “A far-right majority of pro-Trump conservatives and formerly fringe actors, or mainstream political forces such as the socialists, liberals and greens?” he added.

Alemanno pointed out that for Von der Leyen to “maintain a veneer of respectability” she would need the mainstream parties’ approval.

However, the recent, more right-leaning course of her EPP group on migration, climate and deregulation policies would require more votes in support from the far right of the political spectrum than before.

For many observers, it will be a thin line for her to walk in her second term.

“By alienating both mainstream and part of the far-right, she risks receiving a record thin majority, weakening her independence vis-à-vis [the European Council],” Alemanno said.