Debate on motion against European Commission president lifts lid on simmering discontent among MEPs
The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, has survived a rare vote of censure in the European parliament, but faces calls to reverse the rightward drift of EU policies.
Von der Leyen was always expected to comfortably survive the censure motion vote on Thursday, which in theory could have triggered the downfall of her commission. In the end 175 MEPs voted for the motion, 360 against and only 18 abstained on a turnout of 77% of the 720-strong parliament.
But the debate lifted the lid on simmering discontent among centrist, centre-left and green MEPs who voted her back into office just under one year ago, after elections that gave rightwing nationalists their best-ever results.
The motion of censure – tabled by the far-right, vaccine-sceptic Romanian MEP Gheorghe Piperea – was ostensibly about von der Leyen’s refusal to release text messages exchanged with the Pfizer chief executive at the height of the Covid pandemic. Her stonewalling on the SMS messages has been condemned by the EU’s highest court and described as “maladministration” by an independent watchdog.
