“Say what you see. Tell me what you see, if anything. A spring, brief and fleeting, between your hands”. So sings Vetusta Morla with Los días raros. And rare was the day in Brussels because there are many eyes watching “if there is something” around Teresa Ribera for her not to be vice-president of the European Commission. The PP believes that her “disappearance” before the DANA makes her unable to make the leap to the EU.and convinced his group to, for the time being, delay the approval of the Spanish one. In fact, in Genoa -and from the mouth of Dolors Montserrat- they are already questioning her judicial future. It was, therefore, a very strange day in the European Parliament.
This game is about doubts, vetoes and mathematics. The reality is that nobody gets the accounts they want to get. Why? Because the six vice presidents of the Commission are voted as a block after an agreement between the main families. That vote is now delayed, but the key is in the cross vetoes. The example is simple: Teresa Ribera needs the yeses of the EPP to pass, but is that Raffaele Fitto (Meloni’s man that the conservatives take as their own) has to have the votes of the Social Democrats. If the first one falls because the PP pushes to the end, the progressives could do the same with the Italian. And with two pieces in check, taking into account the majorities, the whole European Commission would collapse.
This would force Ursula von der Leyen to restart almost everything. Yes, von der Leyen of the EPP. In other words, the German might end up stepping in to put things in order. and in fact she was already in the European Parliament on Tuesday, perhaps wondering what was going on. From Genoa they understand that this formula of domino effect does not have to be so, but the reality is that if the water reaches the river they would only have one way left to approve the European Commission, in the most extreme case, which passes through an agreement with the radical right groups. That is, the Patriots of Orbán and Vox, the Sovereigntists of AfD and the loose votes of the Non-attached Members.including Alvise Perez. Nobody wants to go through.
The whole picture has many nuances. The first is in Spanish key, with Feijóo looking for a way to wear down Ribera to at least control the message. Erosion of the vice-president is to erode the government of Sánchez, erratic in many points of the management of DANA, and to relieve pressure on that of Carlos Mazón.also with relevant failures in recent weeks. The second has to do with the rivalry between Von der Leyen and the leader of the EPP in the European Parliament, Manfred Weber. No, the German does not want to make things easy for his countryman. That also counts. The third: this only seems to be a warning of how the legislature is going to develop, not so much within the Commission as in the European Parliament. Total division.
An unchecked domino effect
The PP wants to go all the way for Ribera to fall, even if some of its European colleagues have doubts about forcing the machine so much. For the time being, Genoa scored, they said, “a political success”. The accounts that they make to press that button are not entirely clear, because the one who looks from a distance with concern is a president of the Commission who believed to have everything tied up and well tied up; but the path seems the opposite. Meanwhile, on the socialist side, they are beginning to raise their voices. If Ribera falls, the whole European Commission falls; or rather, the social democrats fall. have no reason to remain part of “the Von der Leyen majority”.
This Game of Thrones in Brussels left in the background the content of the examination of a somewhat timid Ribera, weak at times.… even evasive in certain questions. But that did not seem to matter. Dolors Montserrat let it be known that “history and perhaps the judges” will rule on Ribera’s role before the DANA. and asked for her commitment to resign if she is involved in a judicial process. In addition, he branded her as “radical” and of being “the main enemy” of the European camp. Vox went further and said that she is “responsible for what happened in Valencia” because “she knew the risks and did nothing”. The vice-president, again lukewarm, responded by implicitly blaming Mazón’s government for not heeding the alerts. “In this case the alert was red,” she recalled. The game, which had already been flawed for hours before, became tense.
The rest of the world is not waiting for us, because we can’t afford to be left behind or leave anyone behind
Beyond the national, Ribera called for defending “a world based on rules” in a volatile geopolitical scenario.He called for “a world based on rules” in a volatile, even dangerous, geopolitical scenario, in which climate change is tackled by leading “innovation in key sectors”. To this end, the internal market is “an ongoing project in which it is essential to continue to make progress” in order to reaffirm strategic autonomy. The ecological and digital transitions are key here, he said.We want an economy that works and we know that competition policies help us to function more and better,” he continued, in another of his areas of expertise, Competition. “By acting together we can face new challenges, not letting ourselves be blackmailed with energy,” for example. And he issued a warning: “The rest of the world is not waiting for us, because we cannot afford to be left behind. nor to leave anyone behind.”
Teresa Ribera also lined up with cutting red tape so that the EU picks up speed at the business level.but this has to go through decarbonization and an incentive to investments “for new jobs and products”. All these challenges have to be met, he said, hand in hand with the European Parliament and also with other international players. These agreements with third countries “must reduce our vulnerabilities”.she said, because only in this way will the EU be “competitive”. Changing languages at different points during the review, Ribera urged to ensure “internal competition” to ensure the high quality of goods and services, with rules such as the DSA and the WFD, already approved during the last legislature. “Europe must relaunch its industrial fabric”.and it must do so “in accordance with the environmental criteria of good governance”. There is no time to lose, he said.
But wait she will have to wait, at least for the time being. All that she told hardly took up any space among so much political mess. The contagion of the national dispute reached Brussels again, with the PP and the PSOE clashing head-on and transferring the tension to a process that seemed to be going through the normal course and has turned at the last moment. The game, the Game of Thrones, it is not known if there will be a winner, but Ursula von der Leyen does not want to lose. On December 1 the machine has to be up and running again.