Von der Leyen survives no-confidence vote, but faces growing opposition in European Parliament

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen survived a no-confidence vote on Thursday, with 360 MEPs voting against the motion and 175 in favor, but the episode exposed mounting political opposition and fractures in her governing coalition.:

Ursula von der Leyen retained her position as European Commission president after surviving a no-confidence vote in the European Parliament on Thursday. The motion, submitted by the hard-right, was rejected by a majority of MEPs, with 360 voting against, 175 in favor, and 18 abstaining out of 553 votes cast. The motion would have required 360 votes to pass.

Had von der Leyen lost the vote, she and her Commission would have been compelled to stand down, potentially throwing the EU into turmoil. Parliament Vice President Katarina Barley of the Socialists and Democrats warned that many MEPs see this as the “absolute last chance” for von der Leyen.

Despite support from her European People’s Party (EPP), the Socialists, Renew, and Greens, a significant number of MEPs from these groups abstained or did not participate in the vote. The no-confidence motion—the first such attempt since 2014—highlighted growing opposition to a Commission president accused by some of drifting to the right and straining relations with the political families that helped bring her to power.

Political groups used the debate to voice grievances over transparency, centralization of power, backtracking on the Green Deal, and alleged breaches of EU procedures. The episode has unsettled the coalition that supports von der Leyen’s bid for a second term, with Socialists and liberals increasingly critical of her leadership.

Both groups had threatened to abstain due to concerns about the Commission’s rightward drift, but the liberals ultimately decided not to participate in what a Renew spokesperson called the extreme right’s “games” with the EU’s stability. The Socialists abstained until von der Leyen agreed to keep the European Social Fund—intended to tackle poverty and support vulnerable groups—in the next long-term EU budget.

Among those who voted for the motion were Socialist MEP Ciaran Mullooly (Ireland) and Renew MEP Matjaž Nemec (Slovenia). Two EPP MEPs, Vincze Loránt and Iuliu Winkler (both from the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania), abstained, as did five members of Renew and three from the S&D group.

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