The tragicomedy of Europeans and the American speed – The hearings of the European Commissioners turn into a madhouse. But it is understandable because the possibility of events beyond the actual will of the protagonists is becoming concrete. Yesterday, the President of the Commission rushed to the Parliament. She spoke with the leaders of the S&D and Renew groups, who have plunged into the darkness of “political ebetism”

Paradox is the term that best expresses the current dimension of the European Left and part of the EPP. Less than a week ago, after the vote that brought Donald Trump back to the White House, everyone in Europe, with the exception of the most radical sovereignists, was extolling European unity as an essential condition for dialogue or even for confronting a US president who has always shown that he has little sympathy for the EU, that he almost does not recognize the Union, preferring by nature bilateral relations with individual countries. A tenant of the White House who has different ideas from Brussels on Ukraine, who is wary of NATO commitments and who, in the logic of America First, defends exclusively American economic interests, even to the point of imagining 20% tariffs on our products. There is therefore a long list of reasons to urge European countries, and by extension the parties historically committed to integration, to promote an image of unity at the expense of partisan interests. Instead, the opposite happened: 

"I cannot take the vice-presidency away from Fitto," Ursula von der Leyen had to say in the European Parliament building. Her future Commission is in danger of exploding. And she has to convince the S&D and EPP to tone down their demands. In the afternoon - while the hearings of the vice-presidential candidates are still going on - the game of cross vetoes, which seemed to be only a pantomime to please the egos and the voters of the parties, in fact turns into Russian roulette. And the two bullets inserted in the barrel of the political gun wielded by the EPP, S&D and Ecr are ready to hit the Italian Raffaele Fitto and the Spanish Teresa Ribera. It all began early yesterday morning. When the leader of the EPP group, the German Manfred Weber, called his S&D and Renew colleagues to question the agreement reached the previous evening, which called for the simultaneous approval of all vice-presidents for last night or this morning. A request that was immediately rejected by the Socialists: "The vote", reiterated the leader of the group, Iratxe Garcia Perez, "cannot slip, it must be done by Wednesday. Why? Because Weber, under pressure from the Spanish People's Party, ready to reject Ribera, appeased them by meeting one of their demands: to force the Spanish candidate to report to the Spanish Parliament on the floods before the European green light. At this point, the Socialists raised their pitch. "The EPP respects the pacts, let's vote on everything now". At the same time, they put Fitto in their crosshairs. If Ribera could be questioned, the same fate would befall the Italian candidate. On the plate goes the executive vice-presidency assigned to the Melonian representative. The S&D makes it a purely political question. Ecr is not part of the political majority, so he cannot be vice-president. The S&D also demands political recognition from von der Leyen: a declaration or a political document restoring the boundaries of the coalition that elected her in July.

Everything is intertwined here. The possibility of events unfolding beyond the actual will of the protagonists is becoming real. The President of the Commission rushed to Palazzo Spinelli. She spoke with the leaders of the S&D and Renew groups. Later, more privately, with his compatriot Weber. Who, in addition to the Spanish pressure, points out another necessity: not to formalize the existence of a right-wing majority. Especially now that the election campaign is beginning in Germany. The deadlock will not be broken. This is not enough for the Socialists. The Ribera knot remains. Even for the People's Party.

They looked for another mediator, contacts continued into the night. They had to hurry. First of all, because the idea of postponing everything to next week involves a very high risk: if the commissioners are not approved by next Thursday, it will not be possible to give "confidence" to the whole college in the plenary at the end of November. It will have to be postponed until December. The other problem is numerical: if there is a force, it fears the votes in the plenary. Without the Greens, who have fifty MEPs, and perhaps some of the Socialists and Liberals, its future would be more uncertain. Even with the support of the ECR. The weakness of the member states that supported her in the summer to form a Commission in her image is now proving to be a fragility. 

At this complicated stage, it is clear that it would be in the interest of the historical EU majority (i.e. S&D, Renew and EPP) to distinguish within the European Right between the ECR and the Patriots, and to try to open a dialogue with the former, who have taken positions similar to von der Leyen's on issues such as Ukraine.

Knowing that the other right, that of Orbán, will become a fifth column of Trump (as of Putin) in the EU. This is the reason why the People's Party has been opening a confrontation with the worlds revolving around Meloni for months. S&D and Renew, on the other hand, which have plunged into the darkness of a kind of "political ebetism", have not.

As a result, the inauguration of the new European government, which was supposed to take place yesterday and perhaps today, is in danger of being postponed until next week.  In short, unbelievable things that cannot help but make a character like Trump, who already after the election had in his pocket the list of his ministers, including Elon Musk, and day after day he pulls one out. A disturbing image compared to the tragicomedy of the new European Commission, especially if its appointment slips another week.