BrusselsAlberto Núñez Feijóo’s PP has not only had to accept that the European PP has voted in favor of the candidacy of Minister Teresa Ribera as the next vice-president of the European Commission, but now its European parliamentary group is also asking her to change the direction of the vote in next week’s plenary session of the Eurochamber in which the new bloc executive will be ratified or overthrown, including the Spanish socialist. “They want them to at least abstain”, point out ARA European parliamentary sources.
In fact, the president of the popular European parliamentary group, Manfred Weber, was already clear enough just after the agreement on the next community executive was closed this Wednesday night. “We have intense conversations within the family (conservative politics) and we are in close contact to find a common position,” said the Christian Democrat leader, who has been Feijóo’s great ally when launching the offensive against Ribera for its management of the floods in the Valencian Country.
However, European parliamentary sources admit that “it will be difficult” to change the minds of conservative MEPs, and they predict that they will end up voting no and will remain as the only state delegation of the European PP that will break the voting discipline of their group. “Just to abstain is to shoot yourself in the foot,” they add. In fact, the popular Spanish delegation, led by Dolors Montserrat, has been very belligerent against Ribera and was visibly angry in the European Parliament against the agreement of the new European Commission that had closed its own European parliamentary group.
Europarliamentary sources even explain in this newspaper that Montserrat and MEP Esteban González Pons pressed at the last minute for the agreement to explicitly ask Von der Leyen to make Ribera resign if she was prosecuted by DANA. This request delayed the final ratification of the agreement, which had already been announced hours ago, although in the end the Spanish people did not get away with it and it remained as a non-binding request in an annex to the pact.
On the other hand, European parliamentary sources assure that the fact of voting against the new European Commission can make the Spanish people lose influence in Brussels. In this sense, they ensure that, especially senior officials, they take into account this kind of attitude that can be seen as not very institutional. “Depending on what you vote, it may take a little longer to get your phone,” they warn.
Source: www.ara.cat
