German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is under pressure to support the candidacy of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen for a second term , if her conservative bloc wins the European Parliament elections next week, DPA reported, quoted by BTA.
The winner of the vote has the right to propose the new president of the Commission, said in an interview with the Sunday edition of the German newspaper "Frankfurter Allgemeine" Manfred Weber, head of the conservative European People's Party (EPP).
"The EPP nominated Ursula von der Leyen for the post of Commission President, so if we win the election, we expect that to be accepted," he told the publication.
Weber noted that the social democrat and liberal groups in the EP did not support him after the 2019 elections, when he was nominated by the EPP as its candidate for the Commission presidency, even though the EPP was the first political force.
p>
"And this dealt a blow to European democracy," he said and emphasized that such a thing should not be repeated.
Scholz gave an indirect warning to von der Leyen not to try to secure a new mandate after the European elections with the help of the far-right.
"It is clear that when the next Commission is formed, it should not be done on the basis of a majority in the EP, which also requires the support of right-wing extremists," Scholz said at a joint press conference on Thursday with Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro in Berlin.
In April, Von der Leyen did not rule out possible cooperation with the group of European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), a right-wing alliance that includes such parties as the far-right "Italian Brothers" of the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.