Von der Leyen seeks centrist allies after far-right election gains

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen began trying to piece together a coalition on Monday after the far-right surged in a European Parliament election, spurring French President Emmanuel Macron to call a snap national vote.

A rightward shift inside the European Parliament may make it tougher to pass new legislation to respond to security challenges, the impact of climate change, or industrial competition from China and the United States.

Von der Leyen, the German president of the European Union's powerful executive body, emerged strengthened from the four-day election across 27 countries that concluded on Sunday, as her center-right European People's Party (EPP) gained seats.

But to secure a second five-year term, von der Leyen needs the support of a majority of the EU's national leaders and a working majority in the European Parliament.

Provisional results on Monday gave the main parties that backed von der Leyen last time - the EPP, socialists, and liberals - a total of 402 seats in the 720-member chamber.

But that is widely regarded in Brussels as too tight a majority for comfort. So von der Leyen may also reach out to the Greens, who suffered heavy losses, and Italy's nationalist Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, with whom she has worked closely.

Late on Sunday night, von der Leyen said she would start by trying to rebuild the parliamentary bedrock of her last term.

"I have been working on building a broad majority of pro-European forces. And this is why, as of tomorrow, we will be reaching out to the big political families that we have formed the platform with," she told reporters in Brussels.

Von der Leyen indicated she would talk to others after those initial consultations, keeping her options open.

She said she aims to work with those who are "pro-European, pro-Ukraine and pro-rule of law" - a description that she has made clear she thinks applies to Meloni's Brothers of Italy but not to some other far-right parties.

However, the socialists, liberals, and Greens have all declared they will not work with the far right, making von der Leyen's coalition-building efforts extremely delicate.

Reuters