Roberta Metsola has been reappointed to lead the legislative chamber in a plenary session establishing the new European leadership. Will MEPs also reappoint Ursula von der Leyen to lead the European Commission? Follow the latest political developments as Euronews takes you behind the scenes.
The European Parliament’s newly-elected 720 lawmakers are converging on Strasbourg for their opening plenary.
There are two new far-right groups – the 25-strong Europe of Sovereign Nations, and the 84 MEPs of Patriots for Europe – who, alongside the European Conservatives and Reformists, now constitute more than a quarter of the chamber.
The centrist parties that have long held sway will be tested, as they take a series of critical decisions.
Maltese incumbent Roberta Metsola was on Tuesday (16 July) re-appointed as Parliament President in a landslide vote.
Far-right candidates bidding to become vice-president were also voted down on Tuesday as part of centrist parties’ coordinated efforts to build a firewall against the radical right-wing. But the hard-right European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni did manage to secure two vice-presidents.
MEPs yesterday (17 July) declared their continuing support for war-torn Ukraine, after Viktor Orbán’s self-proclaimed “peace mission” to China and Russia.
They have denied Orbán the chance to address the assembly, although a planned exchange of views with Council President Charles Michel – the pretext for keeping Orbán out – has now also apparently been scrapped.
The session culminates with today’s (18 July) hotly anticipated vote on whether Ursula von der Leyen should be confirmed as president of the European Commission for a second term.
How many of her own European People’s Party will abstain in the vote? Can she rely on support from allies in Socialists and the Liberals? Will the Greens’ 53 MEPs decide she is the best chance they have to further their agenda?
Follow all the action from behind the scenes, and on the floor of the Parliament, here.
