Ursula von der Leyen has a new doctrine for handling the hard right
The boss of the European Commission embarks on a second term
The harsh winds of political change have howled through the corridors of power in the past year. Consider the nine politicians attending G7 summits—seven leaders of big industrialised countries and two representing institutions of the European Union. In Britain, America and Japan the incumbent politicos have been pushed out of office; Germany’s Olaf Scholz is headed for an electoral drubbing come February. The rest have hardly fared better. Emmanuel Macron called and lost a snap legislative election in France, Canada’s Justin Trudeau is likely to be forcibly retired within a year and Charles Michel will lose his role chairing EU summits on December 1st after hitting term limits. Amid the carnage two women stand out. Giorgia Meloni is still popular, though admittedly she has not faced voters since becoming Italy’s prime minister in 2022. The other, Ursula von der Leyen, stands alone in having secured her place at future G7 confabs until 2029: on November 27th the European Parliament endorsed her for a second five-year term as president of the European Commission.
Retaining control of the powerful Brussels machine and the right to boss around its more than 30,000 Eurocrats is perhaps less arduous than triumphing in hard-fought national votes (under EU rules the parliament endorses a candidate nominated by the bloc’s 27 national leaders, whose choice must reflect the result of European elections which were held in June). Mrs von der Leyen had her tenure extended mostly by having done a good job since being a surprise appointment in 2019, notably dealing with the fallout from covid-19 and Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Given the election results in America, nobody wanted to keep EU politics in suspense any longer than necessary by rejecting one of the commissioners put forward by national governments. But Mrs von der Leyen has also deftly handled the most thorny problem facing the continent’s politicians: how to handle the ever-rising number of parties from outside the political centre. By setting clear rules of engagement with bits of the hard right, she has set a new doctrine others in Europe might learn from.
Mrs von der Leyen’s second term, like her first, involves an informal centrist alliance of her own centre-right European People’s Party (which won most seats in June), the socialists and the liberal Renew faction. But in part because the trio lost ground in the last elections, Mrs von der Leyen has sniffed around on the outer edges of her old coalition to secure enough votes for herself and the 26 members of her new team. Reaching out to Greens for support has been uncontroversial, given that they back the commission’s ambitions to cut carbon emissions aggressively. More contentious has been Mrs von der Leyen’s willingness to at least be civil to parts of the hard right, starting with Ms Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party. For the first time, an influential vice-presidency of the commission will go to a politician outside the political centre, in this case Raffaele Fitto, a minister from the Brothers.
To some in the EU this is an aberration. A cordon sanitaire that keeps hard-right politicians far from power is an article of faith, the last thing standing between Europe and Trumpian folly or worse. Never mind that voters seem to quite like hard-right leaders—Calin Georgescu, an ardent nationalist, scored a surprise victory in the first round of Romania’s presidential contest on November 24th. The key thing for pure-of-heart centrists is to pretend their rivals do not exist. In some countries eschewing any kind of alliance is common sense. Popular as it might be, the Alternative for Germany party is deeply xenophobic and should indeed be beyond the scope of any coalition. Mr Georgescu is a pro-Russia vaccine sceptic. The hard left has its own cranks and unreconstructed Stalinists, too, best left in political Siberia.
Mrs von der Leyen’s starting-point is that not everyone to the right of mainstream conservatives is beyond the pale. She has sensibly set three tests of whether a party could be considered a partner: if it upholds core tenets of the rule of law, supports Ukraine, and is, more ambiguously, “pro-Europe”. That plainly excludes Viktor Orban, the Hungarian autocrat who seems to prefer Moscow and Mar-a-Lago to Brussels. The French National Rally of Marine Le Pen is still out, as is the Polish Law and Justice party, which undermined state institutions while in office. The most notable party to be welcomed is that of Ms Meloni, who governs as a staunch conservative (including on social issues, often in unpalatable ways, such as on gay adoption) but has picked few fights with Brussels and, above all, ardently supports Ukraine.
Right-oh
Notwithstanding the pearl-clutching of political purists, a wider coalition at EU level can only be welcome. Politicians need to reflect what voters plainly want. Reaching out to some “extremes” encourages them to moderate. The von der Leyen doctrine gives an opportunity to the hard right to participate in the crafting of EU policies—and to be accountable for their outcomes. Far from undermining democracy, it shows that EU institutions are responsive to shifts in opinion. Loth as they may be to admit it, mainstream politicians have quietly made once-taboo ideas put forward by the hard right their own, most notably on migration.
After six months of political navel-gazing, Brussels now returns to work. Mrs von der Leyen has promised to cut red tape and bolster the bloc’s flaccid economy. The return of Donald Trump in America may force Europe into decisions on funding defence (which now has its own commissioner). A hawkish new foreign-policy supremo, a former Estonian prime minister, Kaja Kallas, should inject some spine in the debate over Ukraine. The EU is mulling taking in up to nine new members. These are thorny issues, where broad political consensus must be sought—including, at times, from politicians whose views one may disagree with.
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