Jordan Bardella, leader of the National Rally in France and of one of the far-right groups in the European Parliament, declared on Wednesday in Strasbourg that he had gathered the necessary votes to table a motion of censure against Ursula von der Leyen.
The radical left also intends to table its own motion of censure.
Both initiatives are bound to fail as the right, centrists, and social democrats have no intention of toppling Ursula von der Leyen.
At the beginning of September, the president of the RN and the Patriots for Europe group had already called for a censure of the Commission president, notably to oppose the trade agreement with Latin American Mercosur countries, which he described as a “betrayal” of farmers and the environment.
On Wednesday, Jordan Bardella also denounced the trade agreement with the United States on customs tariffs, calling it a “capitulation,” a symbol of a “disarmed and discredited” European Union.
This motion of censure from the Patriots could be debated in the coming weeks once the signatures have been verified.
At the beginning of July, the European Parliament had already largely rejected a far-right motion of censure against the president of the European Commission.
Coming from the right (EPP), von der Leyen has nonetheless not escaped criticism from her allies on the left and in the center regarding her approach.
They reproach her for being too top-down in her management and accuse the EPP of fostering ambiguity with the far right in order to better challenge environmental laws in particular.
