How von der Leyen's confidence vote has torn Conservative group apart
The Conservatives are split between those voting in favour and against the motion of censure, while all the other groups of the Parliament are more or less following a common line.
Within ECR, Romanians from ultra-nationalist party AUR and Polish from Law and Justice (PiS) are among the signatories of the motion of censure, consistent with their custom of being strongly critical of von der Leyen and her college.
The largest party of the group, Brothers of Italy, will vote against the motion, as Nicola Procaccini, the Italian MEP who is also co-president of the group, made clear during his intervention in the plenary debate on the no-confidence vote.
Procaccini not only labelled the motion of censure as a 'mistake' and a 'political gift to our opponents', but he also launched an outright attack on the proponents, targeting his fellow MEPs from PiS and AUR.
'Take out your pop-corn', he said, before starting his scathing intervention towards his own colleagues.
'Why [have] several of today's signatories [of the motion] never presented a motion of censure against the previous von der Leyen commission, that produced the Green Deal and the so-called Pfizergate? [...]. Obviously I know the answer,' he said, in what seems a dig to the PiS' lawmakers, who never tried to topple Janusz Wojciechowski, Commissioner for Agriculture during the previous term and a member of their party.
Italian group leader leveled veiled swipes at fellow group members
In the same speech, Procaccini seemed to attack the Romanian party AUR, whose candidate for presidency George Simion has recently lost the runoff against Nicușor Dan.
'Unfortunately, someone likes to lose both at home and here. I do not,' he said, clearly stating that he wants to keep on 'building majorities' in the Parliament.
This speech deeply upset some ECR delegations, several internal sources from the group told Euronews.
Some MEPs believe that Procaccini's words could have been dictated directly by Giorgia Meloni, the Italian Prime Minister who is also Brothers of Italy's leader, said one source.
During the first months of the new Parliament's legislature, the ECR group sought closer cooperation with the European People's Party (EPP), achieving support to green light the appointment of vice-president Raffaele Fitto and winning some significant votes in the Chamber.
This strategy was endorsed by Procaccini in his plenary speech, but not all ECR MEPs are on board with it. 'Who gave him the mandate to negotiate with the EPP?' asked one source, arguing that a new majority in the European Parliament would be possible only with a radical change and with a new president of the Commission.
Another source from the group confirmed that the speech irritated the Polish delegation, because Procaccini should not have attacked his partners, being the only one allowed to take the floor for his group.
In the plenary, ECR's co-president claimed to speak 'on behalf of the two thirds' of the Conservatives, suggesting that the majority of ECR's delegations will vote against the motion of censure.
But the text of the no-confidence vote included the signatures of MEPs from Romania, Poland, Estonia, Greece and Lithuania. French, Danish and Croatian delegations would probably join the vote in favour of no-confidence.
According to a source, up to 50 MEPs of ECR's 79 members could end up backing the motion of censure, which would mean a strong setback for Procaccini's leadership.
A third source considered that the motion of censure itself already spells 'big trouble' for the group, as it displays divisions and puts Italian and Polish delegations at odds.
However all of the people who spoke to Euronews agree on the fact that it will not lead the group to collapse. 'It is like an old couple, where the partners know each other very well and they know that staying together would be better than alone,' said one source.
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