Scholz confirms EU top jobs deal with von der Leyen as Commission chief

BERLIN, June 26 (Reuters) – German Chancellor Olaf Scholz confirmed on Wednesday that the European Parliament’s three main centrist groups would back Ursula von der Leyen for a second term as Commission president, in a deal Italy’s prime minister said ignored voters’ wishes.

In a speech to the German parliament assessing the fallout from this month’s European elections, Scholz said the groups had also agreed Portugal’s ex-premier Antonio Costa should be chair of meetings of EU national leaders and Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas should be the bloc’s new foreign policy chief.

The three groups combined have a majority in the European Parliament (EP), Scholz noted, adding he hoped that EU leaders meeting on Thursday would quickly sign off on the arrangement.

“We cannot afford to drag our feet in these difficult times,” he said, adding that the EP vote had shown how multiple crises, from the coronavirus pandemic to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the war in the Middle East, had shattered trust in the European Union and national governments.

Populist parties, which performed strongly in the elections, are exploiting citizens’ concerns for their own ends, he said.

“It does not seem to me that a willingness to take into account what the citizens have said at the ballot box has emerged so far,” Meloni told lawmakers.

Her conservative Brothers of Italy party won the most votes in Italy and is the leading force in the European Conservatives and Reformists Party (ECR) in the EP.

Meloni said her ECR group, which has overtaken the liberals in the EU assembly, deserved a key say in the appointments.

The AfD was expelled from the other far-right group in the European assembly, Identity and Democracy (ID), last month after remarks by its lead candidate that the Nazis’ Waffen SS were “not all criminals”.

TURNING POINT

Scholz said the EP election result marked a turning point: “We must ensure that confidence grows again in Germany and Europe, and in many countries around the world.”

That meant providing actual solutions rather than simply railing against problems like the populists, he said, for example on irregular migration.

The chancellor cited a drop in asylum requests in the first few months of the year as well as an increase in deportations, which he put down to a tightening of German migration policy.

Scholz long downplayed the strength of the AfD. But since it surged to second place in nationwide polls last year and sustained that position, he has started to address it publicly head-on. The AfD is on track to come first in three state elections in the formerly Communist-run eastern Germany in September.

At their summit on Thursday, EU leaders will discuss Europe’s priorities for the coming years, Scholz said. These included security, competitiveness and economic growth, and reforms to make the bloc more effective.

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Speed editor on the Berlin hub who provides general coverage on everything from politics to energy in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, with the goal of getting the news out as quickly as possible. Miranda previously worked at the German press agency dpa and Chicago Tribune

Chief correspondent covering political and general news in Germany with experience in Argentina and in Cuba leading Reuters’ broader Caribbean coverage.