| Dear readers, The Commission President was re-elected on Thursday (18 July) in Strasbourg, with 401 votes her favour. 284 voted against her, in the 720-people strong assembly.
She therefore passed the 361-mark, after a 45-minute speech, resembling a State of the Union, where the Commission president and candidate laid out her programme, aimed to satisfy the largest majority of members of the European Parliament.
These figures show that von der Leyen gathered support of almost all seats in her alliance made of the centre-right EPP, the Liberals, Socialists, in theory accounting for 401 votes.
She obviously benefited from help from the outside, most of the Greens camp - only 10 of them voted against her according to Euractiv’s information. This support is likely to give the Green a spot in the alliance.
The Conservatives of Italian Prime minister Giorgia Meloni announced that a large majority of theirs voted against her. So did the Patriots of the French Rassemblement National and Fidesz, the AfD-led Sovereignists, and the Left group. | 