Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1143967
18.07.19 14 EU The EU's first woman president ON Tuesday a slight majority of MEPs at the Strasbourg plenary agreed to support Ursula von der Leyen, a long-standing German cabinet minis- ter, for the presidency of the European Commission. With 383 votes in favour, just over the minimum of 374 required, von der Leyen secured a narrow majority win and will now replace incumbent Jean- Claude Juncker at the start of Novem- ber. Another 327 MEPs voted against her, from a total of 733 votes cast, with 22 absentions. Speaking immediately afterwards, von der Leyen said: "I feel so honoured and I am overwhelmed. e task ahead hum- bles me". e bulk of the votes in her favour came from the centre-right EPP, the socialists S&D, the Renew Europe and some stragglers. Among those were the Italian Five Star Movement in gov- ernment coalition with the far-right League, as well as the populist Polish PiS party members. Earlier in the day, von der Leyen had issued a wide array of policy promises in a speech ranging from climate change to youth job creation. It is unclear what she can deliver, given the decisions rely on support from the member states and the European Par- liament. But despite her promises for greater gender equality, von der Leyen did not mention abortion or LGBTi rights in her opening speech. And although she promised to sup- port rule of law, she also made no direct mention of the European Commission's article 7 procedure against Hungary and Poland. Both countries had supported her nomination for the commission pres- idency, in a move that has overturned the European Parliament's preferred method of choosing a lead candidate (the 'Spitzenkandidaten' process) on the back of the European elections. Despite that outcome, many will praise her for being the first ever female to lead the European Commission. But the tightrope she will need to straddle to appease the member states and the European Parliament may lead to complications further down the line. ose who voted against her, in a se- cret ballot on Tuesday, did so for a wide range of reasons. Among the likely dissenters were the five French socialist MEPs who com- plained that her proposals, although sounding positive, were too vague and too undefined to be taken seriously. French socialist and parliament vice-president Sylvie Guillaume had compared von der Leyen's promises to those of Jean-Claude Juncker when he stood in front of the assembly pleading for the same job five years ago. "Concretely, it remains too vague," she told reporters in Strasbourg before the vote. Raphael Glucksmann, another social- ist French MEP, made similar obser- vations, saying von der Leyen's speech earlier the same day at the European Parliament in Strasbourg was too lofty and too different from her presentation to the group last week. "[at] was nothing like it was this morning," he noted. e French were not alone to turn against von der Leyen, herself a Christian Democrat, in the so- cialist camp amid speculation some 44 had voted her down. Iratxe Garcia Perez, the Socialists & Democrats (S&D) group leader from Spain, had helped shaped the ambiva- lent tone during an earlier debate when she told Von der Leyen that more de- tails are needed when it comes to fight- ing youth unemployment, among other proposals. As the second largest political group after the centre-right European Peo- ple's Party (EPP), the S&D represents 154 votes. e more Nordic socialists MEPs threw their support behind von der Leyen as did most of the group. e vast majority of Renew Europe, previously known as the liberal Alde group, is also said to have backed von der Leyen following her speech. The No Camp But not everyone was happy. e Re- new Europe dissenters are three MEPs from Austria's e New Austria, Ger- many's Free Voters, and Denmark's for- mer defence minsiter Soeren Gade. e conservative European Conserva- tives and Reformists (ECR), represent- ing 62 votes, were not impressed either although the Polish faction decided to support her despite a failed bid to get their former prime minister a chair on the employment committee. e far-right Identity and Democracy group, with 73 voices, opposed as did the far-left GUE group with 41. e biggest rejection of von der Leyen came from the Greens, the parliament's fourth largest group with 74 MEPs, whose leadership said her appointment process amounted to a backroom deal cobbled together to appease the far- right in central European countries. "If she becomes president, it will be thanks to the votes of the far-right, rath- er than those of the strong pro-Europe- an majority," said the UK Greens, in a statement ahead of the vote. Juncker, for comparison, had the sup- port of 422 MEPs, out of the needed 376 votes, during his election to the same post on 15 July 2014. Similar to von der Leyen, Juncker had made promises that echo some of the proposals she put forward on Tuesday ranging from gender balance to sup- porting small business owners. Ursula von der Leyen is the first woman to fill the EU's top job. But this is not the first time she has made history: in 2013, she became Germany's first female defence minister, a position she has held ever since. The Brussels-born 60-year-old has been a close ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel for several years and it was once thought she would be Merkel's successor. At the age of 13, von der Leyen moved from Brussels to Germany with her family. She went on to study economics at the London School of Economics and later medicine with a specialisation in gynaecology in Hanover. The native French and German speaker has seven children — relatively rare in Germany, where the average birthrate is 1.59 children per woman. Von der Leyen got into politics at the age of 43 and has been a member of Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) party since. She was catapulted into the German political landscape in 2005 when Merkel appointed her federal minister of family affairs, senior citizens, women and youth. Four years later, she was elected to the Bundestag, or German federal parliament. She was the federal minister of labour and social affairs until 2013. Her tenure as defence minister saw her defence department was accused of awarding questionable private contracts linked to the hiring of two consulting firms, McKinsey and Accenture. She later said several errors were made in allocating contracts and that she would endeavour to prevent it from happening again through a series of new measures. In 2015, she was accused — and later cleared — of plagiarism on her PhD thesis.