Despite having the support of her own European People’s Party as well as the Socialists, the liberals of Renew, and the Greens, many MEPs from these groups did not show up to vote.
While von der Leyen, as expected, lives to fight another day, her troubles are far from over. The vote — the first such no-confidence attempt since 2014 — exposes increasing political opposition to a Commission president who, like much of Europe, seems to have drifted to the right, putting her at odds with two of the major parties that brought her to power.
Von der Leyen may have survived but political families from across the spectrum used the procedure to air their grievances against the Commission, whether on transparency and the over-centralization of power, backtracking on the Green Deal, or accusations of violating the EU’s institutional procedures.
It has also shaken up the coalition of parties that support von der Leyen’s second term, with the Socialists and liberals increasingly at odds with the Commission president.
In the run-up to the vote, both groups threatened to abstain over their concerns that the Commission is drifting to the right.
However, the liberals backed down, saying they did not want to take part in the extreme right’s “games” with Europe’s stability, according to a Renew spokesperson.