The President of the European Commission and candidate of the European People’s Party for a second term will be in Porto this Thursday for a rally and meeting with the head of the Democratic Alliance list for the European elections and the President of the PSD.
Ursula von der Leyen will arrive in Porto this Thursday afternoon and, according to a European People’s Party (PPE) source, will meet in the Palácio da Bolsa at 17:15 with the Prime Minister and the leader of the PSD. , Luis Montenegro, before joining the AD campaign.
After this, a rally will take place on Santa Catarina Street, starting at 18:00, in which Ursula von der Leyen, Luis Montenegro will take part, as well as the head of the AD list for the European elections, Sebastian Bugalho.
Finally, the rally takes place in Plaza D. João I.
Ursula von der Leyen’s participation in the AD campaign comes on the day voting begins in the European Union (EU) elections and three days before voting in Portugal.
Some 400 million voters are called upon to choose 720 members of the European Parliament in elections taking place in the 27 member states of the European Union. Portugal will elect 21 MEPs next Sunday.
The trip to Portugal took place at the invitation of AD – the electoral coalition formed by the PDP/SDP, CDU and PPM – after Ursula von der Leyen campaigned in countries such as Greece, Germany, Poland, Croatia, Denmark, Spain, Sweden and Finland.
Ursula von der Leyen is still traveling to Austria ahead of the German vote on Sunday.
At 65, the former German defense minister is the head of the EPP’s list (“spitzenkandidat”) to lead the community executive, after leading the institution since 2019, under a mandate marked by the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union, in favor of fighting the Covid-19 pandemic, supporting Ukraine in the face of a Russian invasion and, more recently, increasing geopolitical tensions in the Middle East given the conflict between Israel and the Islamist group Hamas.
In addition to criticism of her pro-Israel stance on the Middle East conflict, Von der Leyen’s election campaign has also been marked by her recent opening to dialogue with conservatives in order to gain enough support to get elected.
Ursula von der Leyen has guaranteed that she will only join parliamentary groups that are pro-European, support defending Ukraine from Russian invasion and reject alliances with Russian President Vladimir Putin and respect the rule of EU law.
It is the European Parliament that must approve, on the proposal of the European Council, the new President of the Commission with an absolute majority (half of all MEPs plus one), while Ursula von der Leyen must receive the green light from at least 361 parliamentarians (720 seats in total).
As the first female President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen was approved by the European Parliament in July 2019 with 383 votes in favor, 327 against and 22 abstentions in a closed vote.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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