July 19, 2024. STRASBOURG
On July 18, the European Parliament elected Ursula von der Leyen as President of the European Commission. She received 401 votes in favor. This is her second term. She was first elected in July 2019.
The Parliament has 719 members, and 360 votes were needed for a majority. The vote was secret and held by paper ballot. 401 MEPs voted in favor, 284 voted against, and 22 votes were blank or invalid.
Before the vote, Ursula von der Leyen presented her political priorities for the next five years.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s party, Brothers of Italy, voted against von der Leyen. They opposed her. Greens supported her re-election.
“Voting for von der Leyen would go against our principles,” said right-wing MEP Nicola Procaccini. Last month, Meloni abstained from voting on von der Leyen in the European Council.
With support from both the European Council and Parliament, von der Leyen will now assemble her new European Commission. She will ask national leaders to send two candidates for commissioners: one man and one woman, except when the current commissioner stays.
“I aim for an equal share of men and women,” she said. Von der Leyen will interview candidates from mid-August. After that, the European Parliament will review them. EU officials hope the new European Commission will start on November 1, though this date wasn’t mentioned at the press conference.