European Parliament
Rights fail with a request for no confidence against von der Leyen
Updated on July 10th, 2025 – 2:53 p.m.Reading time: 3 min.
Ursula von der Leyen and her EU Commission have to face a vote of no confidence for the first time. The result is clear. However, not only rights from Germany vote against them.
The proposal of no confidence against Ursula von der Leyen’s EU Commission failed. When voting in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, only 175 MPs voted for the advance from the right warehouse. 360 rejected him, 18 abstained.
A total of 553 of the currently 719 parliamentarians voted. For a successful vote of no confidence, two thirds of the votes cast would have been necessary – without abstentions – but at least 360.
With the result, the Leyen was able to gather relatively more deputies behind him and her commission from the Leyen vote than in confirming the new EU Commission last year. At that time, a total of 688 MPs voted – 370 for von der Leyen and her team and 282 against it. 36 abstained.
From the Leyen wrote after the coordination in social networks: “Thank you very much and live Europe.” In a time of global volatility and unpredictability, the EU needs strength, vision and ability to act. During the vote this Thursday, Leyen was not in parliament. Instead, she took part in the reconstruction conference for Ukraine in Rome.
The 77 Parliamentarians, including the 15 German AfD MPs and politicians of the party of racial emblems from France’s right-wing populist Marine Le Pen. If the suspicion had been accepted, the EU Commission should have resigned.
In a pronunciation on Monday evening, the Leyen had held her right critics of heating conspiracies and having no answers to political problems themselves. There are plenty of evidence that many of the extreme powers would be supported by enemies, whether the string pullers are now sitting in Russia or elsewhere, she said.
According to the German SPD politician René Repasi, Leyen made concessions to the factions and assured, among other things, that money is also planned for the so-called European Social Fund (ESF) in the next long-term EU budget. The ESF is an instrument for employment funding and is intended to support training and qualification.
In addition to the EVP, the Greens voted against the application. However, German co-chair Terry Reintke said that the support of the Commission President did not exist for free. The reversal of the climate protection package “Green Deal” by reducing bureaucracy must stop. The members of the alliance Sahra Wagenknecht, on the other hand, voted for the motion for no confidence.
For the German CDU politician, who belongs to the European party family EVP, the advance from the right warehouse was a stress test despite the low prospects of success. The reason is that the 66-year-old, with some initiatives, finally caused displeasure with her.
The pronunciation in the plenary on Monday evening was also used by the Social Democrats and Liberals for accusations against von der Leyen and the Middle Rights alliance EVP. They criticized that the EPP had recently accepted several times that political projects were brought forward with voices from the right wing camp.
The S&D parliamentary group leader Iratxe García asked the EVP: “Who do you want to rule with? The liberal parliamentary group leader Valérie Hayer (Renew) said: “Today, Ms. President, you can see the dead end that you and your political family have gotten because you have approved that the EPP will enter into the extreme rights.”
