Belgian Francophone Socialist MEPs Elio Di Rupo and Estelle Ceulemans announced on Monday that they will vote against the new team of European Commissioners this Wednesday.
Speaking during the European Parliament’s plenary session, the two Socialist Party (PS) lawmakers oppose the decision to appoint Italian Raffaele Fitto (from the far-right party Fratelli d’Italia) to an executive vice-presidency, made by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
"By granting such a significant role to a far-right representative, Ursula von der Leyen violates fundamental principles of ethics, the defence of European values, and European honour," the two MEPs stated. "This choice sets a deeply troubling precedent, especially in an international context marked by major tensions (the United States, Ukraine, Palestine, China, etc.)."
Furthermore, they believe the the three-party agreement made last week between the EPP (conservatives), S&D (socialists and democrats), and Renew (liberals and centrists) does not ensure the preservation of a progressive majority within the European Parliament.
"There is a worrying risk of seeing votes with coalitions which include the far-right, as was recently the case with the deforestation text," they warned. The ECR group (nationalists/far-right), of which Raffaele Fitto is a member, could tip the balance. "Such a dynamic would effectively create a parliamentary majority including the far-right, which is totally unacceptable."
The two socialist MEPs are distancing themselves from their parliamentary group, S&D, which is expected to mostly support the new College of Commissioners. They are, however, aligned with their French socialist colleagues, who announced their opposition to the Von der Leyen II team last week.
Last July, Elio Di Rupo and Estelle Ceulemans abstained from voting on the reappointment of Ursula von der Leyen as head of the EU executive.
