On Saturday 23 March at an Identity and Democracy convention in Rome, the leader of Italy’s Lega party, Matteo Salvini, and the president of France’s Rassemblement National, Marine Le Pen, warned that they will not be supporting Ursula von der Leyen in standing for a second term as President of the European Commission.
“The voters who choose Lega will never choose a second term with von der Leyen and the socialists”, emphasised Salvini. “We will fight to have the greatest possible number of members to prevent her from serving a second term”, announced Le Pen in a video message, during which she denounced the responsibility of the President of the European Commission for the EU’s migration policies and the ‘Green Deal’, which she rejects.
According to Le Pen, Salvini was the only right-wing candidate in Italy to oppose Ms von der Leyen and “the catastrophic policy she is implementing”.
The leader of the Portuguese Chega party, André Ventura, told the media that he hoped the ECR and ID groups would win “enough votes to change the President of the European Commission”. It is not clear whether the ECR Group will be supporting von der Leyen or not. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)