Von der Leyen feels the squeeze as EU liberals implode

Going Green?

With the majority narrowing, the Greens are making it increasingly clear that they want to be let into the coalition talks. 

“Anyone who wants stable majorities can negotiate with us Greens. We are ready,” German Green Rasmus Andresen wrote on X after Babiš announced he was quitting Renew.

But even the Greens, who have around 50 seats, might not be enough to get von der Leyen over the line in Parliament — and opening up to them would likely lose her support within her own EPP group. 

“Even if she expands with the Greens there is a risk that she doesn’t have the numbers now,” ex-ALDE Secretary General Moroza-Rasmussen said, adding that the weakening of the center parties will also drive up the price that Meloni will seek to extract from her.

While Babiš’s MEPs could not have been relied upon to back von der Leyen anyway — having taken aim at the European Green Deal and the bloc’s migration policy — the decision to leave Renew could nonetheless impact the mindset around the European Council table this week. 

“[It matters] because [of] what it does psychologically because now ECR for sure is bigger than Renew. That means they will become a little bit more hardline,” Moroza-Rasmussen said.

“It’s in no one’s interest that there’s a mess,” a person with knowledge of the negotiations said after EU leaders’ inconclusive dinner on June 17. 

“In the end, there are no other names really on the table.”