The European Parliament approves Von der Leyen’s new European Commission, with Teresa Ribera as vice-president

The European Parliament approved the European Commission on Wednesday Ursula von der Leyen with 370 votes in favor, 282 against and 36 abstentions, paving the way for the entire government team to take office on December 1.

The new European Commission has only obtained 51% vote in favor of the 719 members of the European Parliament in the Community Chamber who were able to vote, a worse result than the result that Von der Leyen achieved individually in July when re-elected for a second term as president (where she received 401 yeses) and the closest to that of any college that has ever had commissioners in the history of the European Union.

Next Wednesday’s vote reflects the fragmentation in the country a European Parliament that leans more to the right, without stable majorities and in which all groups that voted in favor had a number of dropouts who voted against or abstained, such as the 22 Members of the European Parliament from the Spanish PP or the 14 from the German SPD. Von der Leyen’s team needed a simple majority, which was guaranteed after the deal was struck last week by the European People’s Party (EPP), the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) and the Renew-Liberals (RE). A majority of the Greens and some of the ultra-conservatives of the ECR also advocated their support.

The Community Council of the tenth term has thus resolved the last major procedure it had to overcome in the European Parliament, so that it can start work on 1 December.