Fears of Right Wing Takeover of Brussels Way Overblown

I generally value FT analysis, but this recent report from the Financial Times Far right gains traction in EU assembly is a bit off.? The general panic on the left that there is some major underhand right-wing take-over of Brussels is misguided. Nothing that happened in Brussels in the last few weeks on the topic of appointing the new European Commission is in any way unusual or unexpected.? Lets focus on what actually happened, not on the media narratives.

First, for the first time in many years, the European Parliament will support all the proposed Commissioners.? ALL.? Five years ago, three Commissioner-designates were replaced as a result of EP scrutiny: Hungary’s László Trocsányi and Romania’s Rovana Plumb were rejected before the hearings as a result of conflict of interest allegations and France’s Sylvie Goulard after two EP hearings.? This time around, not one Commissioner got rejected.? Perhaps it is an indication of a political stitch-up, but hardly a sign of a fundamental disfunction.

Second, out of twenty seven Commissioners, only two have some hard right connections: Hungary’s Olivér Várhelyi and Italy’s Raffaele Fitto.? The hard right has received – more or less, depending how you count – about 30% of the vote in the European Parliament (ECR, Patriots for Europe, Europe of Sovereign Nations and non-aligned), but it will get 7.4% of Commissioners, much less.? In cases of both Commissioners, the right-wing parties rule those countries and it is the right – under EU Treaties – of each Member State government to propose their own Commission designates.? Of course, governments propose candidates that are aligned with them politically.? But there are more EU governments where the hard right is part of the governments or supports them: Netherlands, Slovakia, Finland, the Czech Republic or even Sweden. Yet these governments did not propose controversial hard right candidates for Commissioner post. So the hard right won 30% of the vote in the EP, is involved in seven out of 27 Member State governments, but gets only two (7%) of the Commissioner posts.? Hardly a sign of “right wing take-over”.

Third, as much of the commotion appears to be linked to the role of Italian Commissioner candidate Raffaele Fitto from Georgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy center-right party, it's probably worthwhile to take a closer look at Italy and their candidate.?

=> Italy is one EU’s largest economies and one of the funding members of the EU.?

=> Italy has given us two Commission Presidents.? It is almost a custom that Italians receive an EC Vice-President. A little known fact: in the last 25 years, Italy has held the VP slot for almost 15 (Franco Fratini & Antonio Tajani in Barroso's Commission and Federica Mogherini in Juncker’s Commission).

=> Italian Commissioners have ALWAYS received major files, regardless of their political provenance: Mario Monti for Internal Market, then for Competition; Franco Fratini for internal affairs; Tajani for Industry; Federica Mogerini as the High Representative for Foreign Affairs, and most recently Paolo Gentiloni for Economy.

=> Italian PM Georgia Meloni is today one of the strongest national leaders on the platform.? Germany: a weak government that is heading for an election they will most likely loose.? France: a weakened President Macron and an unstable government that may fall any moment.? Spain: an unstable government that relies on numerous smaller parties for support.? By comparison, Meloni’s government is stable and she enjoys increasing support.?

=> There were no major concerns raised in Fitto’s confirmation hearings.? While he was attacked, mainly from left wing parties, for his government's and his own past positions on some social policy matters, the disputes related mainly to political views and not to substance, with only one exception (role of regions vs. centralization in regional fund disbursement).

So in the end of the day, no wonder Von der Leyen has rewarded Italy with a major portfolio.? Meloni was entitled to her commissioner, Italy had every right to expect a major role and not one major substantive reason was raised why he should not get his file.

Fourth, although Ursula von der Leyen had every reason to build a coalition to the right of the center, she decided to respect the long-standing tradition of “grand-coalitions” in Europe and went to the left.? There were pragmatic (reliability) and symbolic (“pro-EU”) reasons for this, but this should not, in the normal course of things, entitle the left, which – whether one likes it or not – lost the elections (i.e, every single party to the left of EPP has decreased its share of the vote), to have a veto power over the appointment of all Commissioners.? It is hard to understand what exactly the left wing parties wanted to happen during EC appointments and more importantly, why.

What appears to be happening is that the left in the EP is finally waking up to the fact that their power in the EP is ultimately diminished.? A number of recent votes (on Venezuela and the deforestation regulation) have shown there is a new right-of-center majority in the European Parliament and the left simply cannot force its priorities anymore.? But this was clear from the day the results of the EP elections were announced: the right somewhat won, the left somewhat lost and that will manifest itself through this EP term in numerous votes on substantive matters where the left's and the right's viewpoints conflict. But this hardly a scandal: it is how democracy works.