On Thursday afternoon, the European Parliament rejected a motion of censure tabled by the far right against the European Commission by 175 votes to 360, with 18 abstentions.
The text, initiated by Romanian MEP Gheorghe Piperea (ECR), called for the resignation of Ursula von der Leyen and the executive she chairs. In particular, it accuses the German politician of a lack of transparency in the case of text messages exchanged with the head of the American pharmaceutical giant Pfizer during the negotiation of contracts for Covid vaccines.
During Monday evening's debate on the motion, von der Leyen reacted strongly to the accusations, which she described as "conspiracy theories" spread by "Putin apologists" in order to weaken the European Union.
The motion was highly unlikely to pass. It required a double majority: a favourable vote from two-thirds of the MEPs participating in the vote, but also that this positive vote represent a majority of the members of the European Parliament as a whole.
