Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, is expected to face a no-confidence vote in the European Parliament this week. While the measure is likely to fail, it will be a symbolic challenge to the European Union’s top official at a time of high tension.
Ms. von der Leyen appeared before Parliament on Monday for a debate to address the complaints against her ahead of the vote, which is scheduled for Thursday.
The challenge originated from Europe’s far right: Gheorghe Piperea, a parliamentary newcomer from Romania who belongs to a political group that is often critical of the European Union, accused Ms. von der Leyen’s commission, the E.U.’s executive arm, of “failures to ensure transparency.”
The complaint referred to a lawsuit filed by The New York Times over the commission’s denial of a request for records of text messages between Ms. von der Leyen and Dr. Albert Bourla, Pfizer’s chief executive, when she was trying to procure coronavirus vaccines.
The General Court in Luxembourg sided with The Times, ruling in May that Ms. von der Leyen’s commission did not provide enough of an explanation in refusing the request for her text messages with the Pfizer executive.
Mr. Piperea’s complaint also referred to the commission’s push to ramp up joint defense procurement and to carry out digital laws. He asserted in a filing that the commission’s behavior had been repeatedly opaque and “undermines trust.”
While Mr. Piperea secured more than the 72 signatures necessary to bring his no-confidence vote to the Parliament floor, it’s a relatively low hurdle in a body with 720 members. The move was highly unlikely to garner the two-thirds vote needed to topple Ms. von der Leyen and the commission.
Still, the move to censure her is the first challenge of its kind against the commission in more than a decade, and it underscored a growing sense of frustration among some European lawmakers over what they often paint as a heavy-handed approach from the European Union executive.
Ms. von der Leyen “is expected to win comfortably,” said Jörn Fleck, senior director with the Atlantic Council’s Europe Center. Still, he called the vote a “warning shot” at a moment when many in Parliament were worried about being left out of decisions.
The vote comes at a politically sensitive time, as the commission negotiates with President Trump’s White House to try to secure a trade deal. The United States has threatened Europe with 50 percent across-the-board tariffs, a levy that could deal a crushing blow to the fragile European economy.
America’s global trading partners were awaiting announcements about tariffs just as Ms. von der Leyen was appearing before the European Parliament on Monday night — Mr. Trump had said that the White House would begin to announce deals and tariff rates around the same time.
Trade is not the only pressing concern for the European Union.
Ms. von der Leyen’s commission has been racing to help member states ramp up their military spending as the United States pushes Europe to shoulder more of the burden of its own defense. And E.U. policymakers are working to pare regulation, worried that they have pushed green policies and other directives too far and have threatened to hold back European companies and choke off growth.
The high stakes — and growing worries — were on display on Monday as Ms. von der Leyen appeared before policymakers in Strasbourg, France. Mr. Piperea opened the hearing by comparing the commission’s actions to totalitarianism under the Soviet Union.
Ms. von der Leyen responded by saying that Mr. Piperea’s challenge was “taken right from the oldest playbook of extremists,” and she accused him, among other things, of “spinning debunked conspiracies about text messages.”
Ms. von der Leyen has not provided access to the text messages in question. The commission has argued that because the messages are short-lived, they are not in the public record. It is unclear if the messages still exist.
Manfred Weber, the president of the European People’s Party — to which Ms. von der Leyen belongs — called the vote a waste of time that played into Russia’s hands and put the interests of European citizens at risk. He said the party, the largest in the European Parliament, would vote to support Ms. von der Leyen on Thursday.
The question now is not whether Ms. von der Leyen will lose the vote — it is whether the challenge will leave a stain on the leader.
The vote, Mr. Fleck said, is coming from far-right lawmakers who are “trying to undermine the president at a crucial point.”
Jeanna Smialek is the Brussels bureau chief for The Times.
The post European Commission’s Leader Faces No-Confidence Vote in Far-Right Challenge appeared first on New York Times.
