The proposal initiated Gheorghe Piperea, Euro MP from Romania, Vice-President of the Group of European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), which besides includes Law and Justice. As a reason, he gave the Pfizergate affair which has been going on for 4 years. It broke out after The fresh York Times revealed information about the exchange of texts between von der Leyen and the president of the pharmaceutical company Pfizer Albert Bourla, just before the Union bought Pfizer vaccines against COVID-19. They have been contracted besides much, and the Union is trying to renegotiate the terms of that contract without success. The text contents of von der Leyen were not disclosed. The European Commission has stated that it does not have them. It was not even helped by the Court of the European Union, which considered the EC message unreliable and ordered the messages to be declassified. Signatories of the proposal believe that von der Leyen has committed a deficiency of transparency, but they besides have another reasons to request the end of its six-year rule. They have raised allegations of EC interference in Romanian elections and omitting the European Parliament in organising joint EU defence loans. The proposal was signed by 77 MEPs from 3 groups: ECR, Patriots for Europe (PfE) and Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN). – This is the beginning of the end— announced Piperea during the presentation of the proposal on Monday 7 July.
Ursula von der Leyen referred to the allegations, saying that Pfizergate's affair was conspiracy explanation created by anti-EU forces seeking to divide Europe, supporters of the proposal called Anti-vaccination and Putin apologetsand the proposal itself, in her opinion, is taken alive from the oldest extremist textbook. The Hungarian Prime Minister lobbied powerfully for the vote of distrust for the EC chief Viktor Orbán. The day before the vote on his X account, he published a artwork resembling the cover of "Time" – president of the EC on a red background coming out of the frame and writing: Time to go (Time to go). It was a retaliation for a akin image with the same slogan, but with the image of Orbán that the European People's Party, von der Leyen, posted on Facebook last year.
Her image was damaged.
The vote on the future of the president and thus the European Commission as a full took place on 10 July. 175 Members were in favour of the appeal, 360 were against and 18 abstained. Ursula von der Leyen saved her position, but the chief's image was badly damaged. The votes against her leadership are increasing. Not just the right-wing people. The left-wing vote only supported her conditionally. 1 of their main allegations is that the President's camp is increasingly joining forces with the far right, primarily in order to retreat environmental legislation. French Euro MP Valérie Hayer, the leader of the centre group Renew Europe, says about the current Commission: Zcentralized and sclerotic. Professor of EU Law Alberto Alemanno believes that the effort to remove von der Leyen It highlights many shortcomings that media and policy observers have been paying attention to for any time – its presidential style, centralization of power and its transparency (...). It will not come out reinforced.... The force to hold her liable will only grow.
