The head of Romania’s opposition party accuses the Commission president of downplaying Bucharest’s spending irregularities.
March 12, 2024 3:18 pm CET
BUCHAREST — Romanian centrists in the European Parliament won’t back Commission President Ursula von der Leyen for a second term, said the head of the country’s main opposition party, accusing her of turning a blind eye to corruption in Bucharest.
It’s an early warning shot to von der Leyen just days after her anointment as the European People’s Party’s lead candidate. As she shifts to the right to solidify her center-right base, the Commission chief will still need the backing of some 200 MEPs from other political groups if she is to get a second term. And although the Renew-aligned Save Romania Union (USR) party will likely only send a handful of lawmakers to Brussels, she can’t afford to keep losing votes.
“Democracy is eroding in Romania, and von der Leyen is looking the other way,” said USR President Cătălin Drulă in an interview. “There’s a simple reason for that,” he added: “There’s a war next door in Ukraine, and our government holds the correct geostrategic position.”
A former transport minister, Drulă said the Commission was releasing post-Covid recovery funds to Romania despite Bucharest’s failure to implement required reforms, and that Brussels was soft-pedaling criticism of Romania’s backsliding on judicial independence and press freedom. While the Commission’s technical experts are aware of irregularities, they’re being “overruled politically,” he said.
“We’re not going to vote for her. It’s a fundamental breach of the mission and the mandate of a head of Commission,” Drulă said in a conference room at the USR party headquarters, not far from the Romexpo stadium where von der Leyen formally became the EPP’s Spitzenkandidat last week.
European Commission spokespeople did not respond to a request for comment.
The EPP is currently projected to win 175 of 720 seats in the European Parliament, according to POLITICO’s Poll of Polls, far from the 361 votes needed for another mandate. In 2019, von der Leyen cleared the threshold by just nine votes.
The latest projection shows USR winning four seats in June’s election. Citing internal polls, Drulă predicted eight to 10 MEPs would be elected as part of a new alliance with two smaller parties, all of whom plan to vote against von der Leyen.
USR is the main opposition party in Romania, where the center-right and the social democrats govern as a grand coalition under socialist Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu. The EPP and the European Socialists will run together on a joint ticket in the June European Parliament election, and are on track to win a combined 19 seats.
Hanne Cokelaere contributed reporting.