Ursula von der Leyen’s Commission survived on Thursday a vote of confidence in the European Parliament, tabled by far right Patriots for Europe (PfE) and rejected with 390 MEPs against, 165 in favour and 10 abstentions.
A threshold of two-thirds of the votes cast, representing a majority of all sitting MEPs, was needed to topple the Commission.
The Parliament decided not to unseat von der Leyen the day after a significant setback for her Commission, with MEPs voting to refer the EU-Mercosur trade agreement to the EU Court of Justice.
The motion of censure filed by the far-right group was focused on the signing of the Mercosur deal, arguing that the Commission “failed to listen to farmers and citizens” and “overstepped its competencies” in signing the agreement with Latin American countries.
The farmers' associations protesting outside the Strasbourg Parliament this week have asked for von der Leyen’s resignation, displaying banners and singing chants against her presidency.
Von der Leyen still has the confidence of the political groups
The motion was discussed on Monday in Strasbourg in an almost empty hemicycle, with Commissioner for Trade, Interinstitutional Relations, and Transparency Maroš Šefčovič representing the Commission, and almost no leaders of the political groups present in the room, indicating the lack of interest in the motion and the inevitable outcome of the vote.
Beyond its proponents, only a few dozen EU lawmakers, mostly from other far-right parties, have supported the attempt to topple the Commission, despite many MEPs having criticised the EU-Mercosur deal and von der Leyen’s policies.
MEPs from the European People’s Party (EPP), Socialists and Democrats (S&D), Renew Europe, and the Greens/EFA supported the Commission, with a few exceptions. Dutch EPP MEP Jessika van Leeuwen from the The Farmer–Citizen Movement (BBB), who is strongly against the EU-Mercosur deal, voted to topple von der Leyen.
The Europe of Sovereign Nations fully supported the no-confidence initiative, while the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) split, with Polish, French, Romanian MEPs against the Commission, and Italian, Belgian, and Czech MEPs defending it.
Most lawmakers from The Left did not take part in the vote; while the group firmly opposes von der Leyen, it did not want to support an initiative coming from the far right. Eight of its MEPs, however, voted in favour of the motion, among them lawmakers from the Italian Five Star Movement (M5S).
"We are at the opposition, and so we have to vote always against von der Leyen, no matter where the motion of censure comes from", Pasquale Tridico, head of the M5S delegation, told Euronews.
This was the fourth vote of confidence held in the Parliament during von der Leyen’s second term as Commission chief. The previous ones, in July and October 2025, have also confirmed the Parliament’s support for von der Leyen, with the motions of censure nowhere near the threshold for approval.
Today's vote saw even more votes in favour of the Commission than the previous three.
