Empress Ursula and the Rotten Apples

The new college of ministers is far from our dream team. To be honest, we couldn’t really expect much with the current political landscape in Europe. But there’s two figures that really are a No-Go. First, Hungarian Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi (responsible for Health and Animal Welfare). A good buddy of Orbán’s and a guy that has called Parliament a bunch of idiots. He clearly doesn’t show any respect for the EU and its institutions.

Second, and even more prominent, Italy’s Raffaele Fitto. A far right Fratelli d’Italia guy who will be in charge of EU-Reforms, of all things! Even worse, von der Leyen appointed him a Vice-President, making him one of the more powerful Commissioners in this College. That wasn’t necessary. Von der Leyen has promised she wouldn’t work together with the far right, but this is exactly the opposite! And a reason why a lot of the MEPs didn’t vote for this Commission.

Not all Commissioners are that bad, though. In fact, we were genuinely surprised by the expertise of some. We had interesting talks with them and could even built up a level of trust. More important still, Volt got a few committments that really matter to us: Strong support for Ukraine, better funding for Erasmus+, new frameworks for multimodal transport. And the promise to revise the EU treaties where they don’t work anymore – one of our core demands! We believe that the system is flawed, so it is really time for a treaty change. Who says we need one Commissioner from every member state, no matter how weird and inexperienced they are?

And it’s also time to give voters more power: If they elect members to the European Parliament, this Parliament should be in charge of nominating Commissioners and deciding on them one by one. To make every vote really count! For now, we can only approve or dismiss the Commission as a whole.

After intense discussions and a long thinking process, Volt has decided to not stand in the way of this new College of Commissioners. It wasn’t an easy decision and as always, we’re 100% transparent about this (if you want to have a closer look at our reasoning, you can find the pros and cons here). We believe that Europe now need stability and reliability. If this Commission hadn’t passed, we would have been in for more uncertainty until well into next year, without any prospects of actually getting better nominees for the next round.

Ursula von der Leyen has won this vote. But only barely so. This is a strong signal for her: She cannot do whatever she wants. She must build a stable majority across democratic forces in this Parliament. And most important: She has to stop the dangerous schemes of her conservative colleague Manfred Weber to push this parliament even further to the right, collaborating with the populists. I told them both in my speech just before the final decision: Volt and the Greens don’t bite! This Commission only passed with the votes of Volt, Pirates, some Greens and Social Democrats. Leaning to the far right is nothing she can rely on, and I think she got the message. Now it’s time to move forward together, because in the end, this is not about her or us. It’s not about the new Commissioners either. It’s about the future of Europe. Let’s make it happen!

Yours,

Damian