BRUSSELS –
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen began working to bring together a coalition to lead the bloc on Monday after the far right gained ground in a European Parliament election, spurring French President Emmanuel Macron to call a snap national vote.
Centrist parties won a majority of seats in the four-day election, but the rightward shift may make it tougher to pass new legislation to respond to security challenges, climate change or industrial competition from China and the U.S.
Von der Leyen, the German president of the European Union’s powerful executive body, emerged strengthened from the election across 27 countries that concluded on Sunday, as her center-right European People’s Party (EPP) gained seats.