Agius Saliba Abstains From Von Der Leyen Confidence Vote, Cites Palestine As One Reason Of Many
Labour MEP and Vice-Chair of the S&D Group Alex Agius Saliba decided to abstain from a no-confidence vote in European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
“Her stance on the Middle East – particularly on Palestine – the complete lack of social ambition, together with the European Union’s rearmament process which has become a priority for this Commission, placed me in a position where I could never give a vote of confidence to Ursula von der Leyen,” Agius Saliba wrote on social media.
Agius Saliba has been vocally and consistently critical of von der Leyen and her political group, the European People’s Party, which houses all of the Nationalist MEPs.
“Let this reprimand serve as a lesson so that the President of the Commission, together with the European People’s Party group, stop trying to steamroll everyone with their anti-social agenda,” he continued.
The vote was tabled by a far-right faction in the European Parliament. 480 out of the 720 members of the European Parliament would have had to back the motion for it to pass. Instead, only 175 voted in favour, 360 voted against and 18 abstained. The remaining MEPs did not vote.
Agius Saliba confirmed with Times of Malta that he abstained, making him the only Maltese MEP to not back von der Leyen in this vote.
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