Green light for 19 of 20 EU commissioners with majority and the ECR votes. A message in view of the vice presidents (and Fitto)

Brussels – The hearings for the simple European commissioner-designate ended under the banner of collaboration among the political groups of the majority. With the four approved yesterday (Nov. 7) – Marta Kos, Wopke Hoekstra, Piotr Serafin, and Valdis Dombrovskis – 19 of the 20 candidates reviewed by the European Parliament got the green light. For all of them, the endorsement came with the united vote of the Populars, Socialists, Liberals, and Greens. They were, however, steadily joined by the conservatives of ECR, performing a surprising turnaround after their opposition to the re-election of Ursula von der Leyen.

A clear message: the ECR does not want to stay on the sidelines in Brussels, and, more importantly, it wants to protect its only candidate in the circle of executive vice presidents, Raffaele Fitto. On Tuesday, Nov. 12, it will be the turn of von der Leyen’s six deputies to undergo review by the parliamentary committees responsible for their portfolios. Fitto, who will open the day of hearings, has been in the balance since his designation as executive vice president with responsibility for Reforms and Cohesion. Beyond the cordon sanitaire against the far right, a stigma from which ECR has long been trying to extricate itself, for socialists, liberals, and greens, it is a matter of political consistency: Fitto is part of Fratelli d’Italia, a party that did not support the confirmation of von der Leyen as head of the European Commission, so he cannot be part of the inner circle of vice presidents.

The leader of the French Socialists in the European Parliament, Raphaël Glucksmann, also reiterated this yesterday: “Raffaele Fitto should not be vice-president of the EU commission and, as far as I know, my group has not changed its position. It is simple: the alliance that supported von der Leyen in July does not include the ECR. Therefore, there is no reason to give him a vice-presidency.” Not all delegations of the second group in the European Parliament share the firmness of the position of the French socialists, starting with the Italian one (the largest in the S&D family), with the Democratic Party likely to push for the compatriot’s approval once its “reliability on a pro-European mandate” has been verified.

The European Conservatives and Reformists, led by Giorgia Meloni, have been flirting with Ursula von der Leyen and the European People’s Party for some time. However, when needed, they are ready to side with the two far-right groups in the European Parliament, Viktor Orbán’s Patriots and the Sovereignists that revolve around Germany’s AfD. It even happened during the commissioners’ hearings: the Hungarian Olivér Várhelyi, the only one not yet approved, was rejected with the votes of the EPP, S&D, liberals, and greens. On Orbán’s man in Brussels, the ECR preferred to wink at the far right.

However, the constant alignment on all the other candidates is a strategic choice to be able to say: “We’re there too,” to be able to claim the right to enter the control room and show that it is well disposed to the three groups threatening to reject Fitto next Tuesday. The ECR can count on the strength of the European People’s Party and the timing of the hearings that the European right imposed to secure its candidate. There was already a hint of what may happen with the cross veto over commissioners Jessika Roswall (EPP) and Hadja Lahbib (Renew), with the EPP threatening to stall the Belgian liberal until the progressives unblocked the green light for the Swede.

Fitto, Ribera, and all the others will have to get the go-ahead from at least two-thirds of the political group coordinators in the relevant parliamentary committees. If the majority splits, it would be necessary to resort to a simple majority vote in the examining committees.

Fulvio Martusciello, head of Forza Italia’s delegation, which is part of the EPP, immediately responded to the French Socialists’ statement on Fitto. “Glucksmann and his people continue to threaten Fitto with an unloaded gun, forgetting that Teresa Ribera’s hearing is scheduled after Fitto’s,” Martusciello pointed out: if the Italian executive vice president falls, the Spanish Socialist will also fail. Moreover, with this in mind, the EPP, the ECR, the Patriots, and the Sovereignists voted to begin the vice presidential hearings with Fitto and close them with a figure the Socialists are unlikely to sacrifice.