Socialists, Liberals and Greens oppose von der Leyen's appointment of Italian hard-right Raffaele Fitto (ECR) as executive vice-president of the new European Commission.
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00:00The choice of the Italian Raffaele Fitto as one of the six executive vice-presidents of
00:06the next European Commission wasn't appreciated by most of the political groups that backed
00:10Ursula von der Leyen.
00:13Socialists, liberals and greens don't like having a vice-president coming from the group
00:19of European conservatives and reformists that they consider as far-right.
00:24With regard to the vice-presidency of ICR, President von der Leyen knew perfectly well
00:34our position against it.
00:36In any case, now the work begins, the hearings process, and throughout this process we will
00:41have to evaluate the capacity, knowledge and European commitment of each and every one
00:46of the commissioners, also of the Italian commissioner, and finally we will take a final
00:51position regarding it.
00:53Fitto, who served as minister in the government of Italian Prime Minister Giorgio Meloni,
00:56will be strictly analysed by the parliament before getting the green light.
00:59The opposing groups must decide whether accepting his post is a viable way to manage the rising
01:03pressure from the far-right, or if rejecting him now could lead to even greater pressure
01:07in the future.
01:08With the Group Renew, we have already alerted about Ursula von der Leyen's political choice.
01:14She confirmed it.
01:15We are taking action on it.
01:16From now on, there will be auditions and our demands will be real towards Mr. Fitto.
01:21We will examine all the candidates.
01:22We will examine the candidates based on their skills, pro-European commitment and independence
01:27towards the member states.
01:28The Greens' AFA group also expresses doubt on two other appointments, the commissioner
01:33of Austria that got internal affairs and migration, and the Hungarian that got health and animal
01:38welfare.
01:39First of all, Vareli, our Hungarian commissioner, we do not understand that he is being put
01:45back there in the college.
01:46He did not perform very well in the previous term, so we have our concerns there.
01:50Also, as far as I know, he doesn't know anything on animal health, on animal welfare and on
01:56health, so in that sense also there are concerns.
01:59And, of course, on migration, having an Austrian conservative on migration also is a big concern
02:04for us.
02:06Each commissioner needs the approval of at least two-thirds of the competent European
02:10Parliament's committee to be approved.
02:12For some of them, it won't be an easy task.